Blondes Are for the Birds
by Auntie Cliche
Summary: Rin's life is a yellow disaster thanks to her mom, Akita Neru. Neru's love life is a long history of towheaded wonders, and Rin is sick of it. That is, until her mother marries Kagamine Leon, and Len comes into Rin's life. This is their love story.
1. Blonde Number 27

Disclaimer: If I owned the Vocaloids (which I don't), they would all have last names because that would make writing fanfiction so much easier.

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**Blondes Are for the Birds**

**Chapter 1: Blonde # 27**

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Rin's mother, Akita Neru, had a strange tendency of dating men who looked exactly like her late husband: tall, blonde, and striking. Of course, this fact did not disturb Rin when she was younger. Honestly, she did not realize that her daddy was gone until she was tall enough to clearly see these strange men that looked nothing like her father's pictures. But now that she was fourteen, she was starting to get a little weirded out.

"Oh, Leon-san is the nicest person! So professional. I met him in a coffee shop, and we had the nicest conversation. Wait until you meet him!" Neru winked, handing a wallet-sized photo of the man to her daughter. "I think this one's a keeper."

Snatching the photo from Neru, Rin squinted skeptically, then shook her head. "Mom, he's blonde and tan."

Neru's happy-go-lucky smile wilted slightly. "What is wrong with that?"

Her daughter raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

Neru blinked in confusion, then narrowed her eyes. "Now Rinnie, what have I said about judging people according to their appearances?"

Rin rolled her eyes and groaned internally. She found it hard to believe that her mom didn't see such an obvious pattern. All of her boyfriends, every single one of them, whether they stuck around for a month or a year or two, were blonde. All of them had bright, winning smiles, and their eye colors ranged from bright green to deep blue. Of course, one boyfriend a few years back had brown eyes, but he lasted three weeks.

"That's not what I meant," Rin mumbled and began to walk up the stairs to sulk in her room, alone.

"No, wait! I really want you to see him," Neru insisted, sticking out her lower lip. "We've been dating for a while, and I told him that he could meet you tonight. What will I say if you're not here?"

"Just pretend that I don't exist," Rin retorted, turning to scowl at her pouting mother. "Like you did with Yamamoto-san and Hori-san and Saito-san and…"

Neru sighed knowingly. "They didn't have children. Hori-san didn't want any, and to my credit, I did eventually tell them about you. I just tried to take it slowly."

"You mean, you broke the news to them right before you broke up," Rin corrected, adding mentally, _and as soon as they realized that they looked like their girlfriend's dead husband._

"That…that isn't fair," Neru stuttered. "Leon-san is different! He's responsible, he has a family, and he knows what it's like to loose a spouse." She frowned empathetically. "His wife Haku-san left him when his son was just four years old."

"Dad didn't leave us," Rin argued, lips tight and thin. "He didn't have a choice. Don't compare him to someone like her!"

Her mother's tawny eyes stretched wide, and she dropped her head to stare at her empty hands. Rin's mouth twitched, wishing she could take back what she had said. Neru's heavy silence, weighed down with bitterness, was more painful for Rin than any harsh or biting words could have been. The slouch of her mom's shoulders and defeated eyes pulled at Rin's heartstrings, and she wrapped her petite mother into a warm hug.

"I'm sorry," she whispered. "I didn't mean it."

"It's okay," Neru said softly, looking up to smile. Reading the sincere apology in Rin's eyes, she patted her daughter dotingly on the head. "I know it's not easy for you, and it's certainly not easy for me." She sighed, but lightly and without sorrow. "I know it wasn't his fault, but sometimes, I'm angry at him for dying."

Rin tightened her embrace, and Neru leaned gently against her daughter. "I ask him, 'why did you have to go?' And even though he doesn't say anything, I know that he would want me and you to move forward and to be happy." She wrapped an arm around Rin's shoulder and gave her a squeeze. "So let's try our best, ne?"

Rin nodded once again and cracked a smile, which her mother returned.

"Okay!" Neru clapped her cheeks decidedly and stood up to give one last look at herself in the kitchen mirror. "Leon-san will be here in a few minutes." She peered over her shoulder to catch Rin running back up the stairs. "Rinnie! I thought you said…"

"I still don't feel like meeting him," Rin hollered back, biting her lip to think up a lie. "And…I have a lot of homework to do, so I can't."

"It's a Saturday night, Rin! We both know that you won't start on your work until Sunday. And I don't feel good about leaving you here alone."

"Mom. I'm fourteen." Rin poked her head around the banister of the stairs. "But if you're worried about that, I'll go hang out with Teto-chan."

"No, that won't work! I promised Leon-san…" Her words were cut off by the ringing chime of the doorbell. Neru gasped. "He's here!"

Grabbing her purse, she dashed for the door, and Rin took the opportunity to make her escape. As soon as she heard muffled voices in the entryway hall; however, she paused on her way to her room. It had been a long time since Neru was this insistent about a potential beau, and Rin was slightly curious to see what exactly this Leon-san was like. It didn't hurt that he was a bit of a hunk. For a man in his late thirties, that is.

So when Neru began calling "Rin, Rin! Sweetie, can you come and say hello?" Rin sauntered towards her mother's voice and the open front door.

Playing the part of the devoted daughter, she smiled up at Kagamine Leon, recognizing him from his picture. "Hello Kagamine-san." She offered her hand to him politely. "I'm Rin."

He took her hand with firmness, and Rin mentally noted how dependable and perfect his handshake felt. Her father, a CEO of his own budding company, had taught her how to shake someone's hand before she could walk. Just like a toothpaste tube, squeezing just enough to get toothpaste on her toothbrush, but not too hard, so it wouldn't squirt all over the place. Since she enjoyed reading people, Rin judged them first by their handshake. Then, she would get a good look at their eyes. People lied, but their eyes always told the truth. Leon's mint-green irises were darkened with gray in the middle and around their edges, a sign of aging and past sorrows, but they also twinkled with an open love of people.

He smiled at her fondly. "Nice to meet you, Rin-san. You're just as beautiful as your mother."

Enjoying his flattery, Neru blushed indulgently. "Ah, Leon-san! You spoil me too much. If you keep complementing me, I'll find it hard to believe what you say."

At this point, Rin began to tune out of their conversation. Lovey-doviness was a language she had yet to understand.

Glancing down at his flushing date, Leon frowned with mock-seriousness. "I always say what I think, and you look stunning."

He presented her with a bouquet of white lilies, which he had been hiding discreetly behind his back, and Neru gasped appreciatively.

"These are my favorite! How did you know?" She buried her face in the flowers and took a deep whiff, spreading yellow pollen on her nose. Leon chuckled, bringing Rin out of her daze.

She gasped at her mother. "Mom! That stuff will stain your clothes!"

Neru blinked at her daughter and sneezed cutely. "Sorry. They smelled so good that I forgot." Leon laughed quietly to himself, amused at the antics of this carefree mother and her motherly daughter.

Neru pulled the lilies away from her face and turned to Leon to explain. "Rin really loves flowers. She arranges them all over the house, and she's quite good at it."

Leon gave Rin a meaningful look and nodded approvingly.

After rubbing her nose, Neru gasped at her yellowed fingers. "Could you come inside for a bit while I wash this off my face, and Rin finds a vase for the flowers?"

Leon glanced at the silver watch on his wrist. "Our reservations are not until 7:30, and it's only 6:45, so we have plenty of time."

"Okay," Neru piped cheerily. "Come on in and make yourself comfortable." She walked them into the kitchen, handed Rin the bouquet, and then headed for the stairs. "I'll be back in a jiffy."

Now alone with this stranger, Rin cleared her throat uncomfortably. To calm her nerves, she mentally went through the proper questions a hostess would ask her guest. "Please, feel free to sit down." Leon took her up on her offer, and pulled out a stool to sit at the kitchen island.

With some paper towels, Rin carefully wiped the orange anthers off of each of the lilies and threw the pollen and towels into the trash. As Rin looked through the glass cabinets for a proper vase, she called over her shoulder, "Would you like some water or soda?"

"Oh, no. I'm fine. But thanks for asking." His winning smile somehow made Rin want to give him a grin of her own. Turning back to her precious flowers, she brandished a pair of kitchen scissors and began stripping the leaves off the lilies and diagonally cutting their stalks, so that the flowers could drink their water more easily. She lovingly arranged them in a fluted vase while Leon watched her with interest.

"When did you start arranging flowers?" he asked conversationally, catching Rin off guard.

So far in her experiences with her mother's numerous lovers, whenever she was stuck in a room with one of them for an extended period of time, they would either stay constantly on their toes, glancing at their watches and impatiently waiting for Neru, or they typed on their handheld devices to pass the time. Rarely did they try to strike a conversation, and she couldn't remember the last time one of her mother's boyfriends had honestly asked her a question about something besides random Neru facts, something about Rin personally. This definitely earned Leon bonus points in her book.

"I'm not sure. No one taught me how, though mom says that my grandmother used to love flowers. I guess since mom has always had some guy or other bringing her flowers, I would put them in water for her and play around with them."

Leon chuckled at her honesty, and Rin realized her slip-up. "Oh, I shouldn't have said that."

"No, no. It's perfectly all right." He shook his head. "I'm already aware of Akita-san's popularity." Pausing thoughtfully, he continued. "I'd like to say that we have a pretty open relationship. I'm honest with her, and she's honest with me." Seeing Rin glance his way, he twiddled his thumbs a little. "It's very refreshing."

Okay, Leon had just tripled his Rin bonus points. He talked to her as if she was an individual, not like a small child or her mom's accessory. She remembered a time when she was eight, walking in the supermarket with her mom as another blonde, blue-eyed wonder crossed their path. The man had been nice enough and had praised Neru on having such a "cute daughter," but the way he said it made Rin feel as if he could just as easily have said, "Neru, that purse is such a beautiful color on you," or "You look stunning in that dress." Leon was different, and Rin liked it.

Waiting for her mother to emerge once again, the two talked freely about Rin's school life, Leon's job as physical therapist, and the store where Leon had bought the flowers.

"I'm sorry that my son is not here yet. I wanted for you two to meet each other, but I dropped him off at the mall to grab your movie tickets before they sold out. He's catching the subway to meet us here. That's why I came so early, so that we wouldn't miss him."

"Oh. Yes, the movie." Rin pretended to know exactly what he was talking about, knowing that yet again, Neru had forgotten to tell her something important. "That's so nice of him to go and get the tickets ahead of time."

Leon chuckled appreciatively. "He's a pretty autonomous kid. He's fourteen, just like you."

"Is that so," Rin hummed, hearing the clack of high heels racing down the stairs.

"Sorry for making you wait so long! I had to reapply my make-up." Neru grabbed her purse off of the kitchen counter and headed for the door with Rin right on her heels. Leon rose to follow them.

Putting a hand on her mother's arm, Rin asked him politely, "Before we go, is all right if I talk to my mom about something?"

Leon nodded instinctively, and Rin chirped "Thanks!" before dragging her mother back into the kitchen.

Shutting the door behind her, Rin whispered under her breath. "Mom, what is this about a movie?"

"Oh!" Neru bopped herself lightly on the head. "That's why I needed you tonight. Leon suggested that you two should spend some time together, and I just couldn't say no."

"I don't even know this guy!" Rin exclaimed.

"If he's anything like Leon-san, he's a perfect gentleman," Neru countered, waving Rin's worries away with a little flick of her hand. "They're new in town, so it will be nice of you to show him around a bit. You'll have fun. Plus," she raised her light eyebrows suggestively, "he may be your future brother!"

"Mom," Rin groaned quietly. "Don't say things like that."

"You never know," Neru chortled, making Rin moan loudly. They both lost interest in their conversation as the doorbell rang for the second time that night.

Leon called "I'll get it!" and opened the door for their new visitor. Neru walked into the entryway first; Rin straggled behind.

"You're just in time!" Leon said, clapping the newcomer on the back. Rin couldn't clearly see his face over Leon and her mom's shoulders, but she could guess that he was Leon's son. Glancing down towards the floor, she caught sight of two worn jean knees and well-loved sneakers.

She looked up as Leon stepped back and began to introduce her to his blonde, blue-eyed son.

"Rin-san, I'd like you to meet Len."

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Authors note: And so it begins!

If you're confused, here are a few extra facts:

I'm using the Japanese order of names because of personal preference, last names first, first names second. I'm also using some honorifics, though I'll probably get tired of them and forget about them in a few chapters.

Ages: Neru is 35 and her birthday is November 1 (released in 2007). She was 21 and happily married when Rin was born.

Leon's birthday is January 15 (released in 2004), so he is 38.

Len and Rin won't have exactly the same birthdays if I discuss their birthdays in this fanfic (they were released as Vocaloids on December 27, 2007), but they are both fourteen when they first meet. I'm thinking that Len's birthday is either late January or early January. He's fourteen when they first meet, and they meet in January, so it would make sense if he had one sometime around then… Probably later in the month so Rin has bragging rights (I'm a whole month older than him, you know!). January 25 sounds about right.

Leon's/Rin's last name: I know, I know. Rin has the "wrong" last name, and Leon isn't supposed to have a surname in the first place (poor guy). To get things straight, in this chapter at least, Rin is Akita Rin, and Len is still Kagamine Len. Since I try to go the non-twincest route with my stories, I usually give the two of them different last names. It would be too ironic if they had similar looks, possibly similar/identical birthdays, the exact same surname, and were not related at all.

Identity of Leon's ex-wife: If you're a vocageek, you know what "Haku" means. If you aren't, Yowane Haku is another fan-made Vocaloid who has silver hair, but dresses and styles her hair in a very similar way to Akita Neru (except Haku wears black pants and Neru has a skirt).


	2. Dinner and a Bad Movie

Disclaimer: Don't own; don't sue.

Warning: The language will get stronger in this chapter, but only because certain characters are venting their frustrations.

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**Blondes Are for the Birds**

**Chapter 2: Dinner and a Bad Movie**

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If Leon had been cloned, his younger carbon copy would have been Kagamine Len with greener eyes. Rin tilted her head a little to get a better look at him.

Where Leon smiled, his son scowled. While his father sported a purple button-down, shined leather shoes, and nice slacks, Len looked as if he could care less what he looked like.

He stuck his hands deeply inside the pockets of his zip-up hoodie, as if to avoid shaking Rin's hand, and shifted his weight from one leg to the other in his scuffed jeans. His uncut hair was pulled back into a messy stub of a ponytail, and his mouth was turned down into a grimace.

Even though Leon had just introduced them to each other, Len looked everywhere but at Rin: towards his father's face, around the front hallway of the Akita home, and up and down her mother's figure. His calculating stare made Rin's face heat up. She didn't like how he seemed to be evaluating her family as if it was some car that his father planned on buying.

Deciding to be the bigger person, Rin struggled to stretch her face into a polite smile and extended a hand towards the newcomer. "It's very nice to meet you, Len-san."

He made no move to take the hand she offered and looked down at the petite fingers as if they were grass snakes.

Leon cleared his throat apologetically and tried to break the tense silence his son had created. "Well, since it's already 7, we might want to start heading downtown so that we have enough time to drop Len and Rin-san off and make our reservation."

"Yes, yes," Neru quickly agreed, taking her daughter's arm and looking sweetly towards her boyfriend's son. "What movie are you going to see with Rin?"

Since Len did not reply, his father answered for him. "I think it's a sci-fi adventure called 'Second Earth.' It's about a government agent exploring the possibilities of a second dimension. It had good reviews, and Len said that he thought Rin-san would like it."

Rin's pupils dilated. Only an idiot would think that a girl would like that movie!

Teto-chan had gone with her older brother, Ted, and apparently the whole movie was a testosterone rush on steroids. It featured high paced action scenes that would put any sane girl to sleep, glaring plot-holes, and actresses with playboy-worthy curves hanging out of skimpy clothing.

Rin would much rather see a romantic comedy, but she didn't have the energy to try and drag this sulky boy into "Fool Me Twice," a flick about an ex-boyfriend and girlfriend falling in love for the second time.

On the car ride to the mall, Neru chatted happily with Leon while Rin stewed in Len's boiling-hot aura in the back seat. The fresh new car smell and the cold weather outside couldn't dampen the heat and humidity of the atmosphere. Now she was almost glad that Len never looked her way; otherwise, his burning stare that was currently piercing holes in Leon's seat would have set her on fire.

Trying to understand where he was coming from, she admitted to herself that she wasn't completely comfortable with this setup either, but Leon didn't seem like a bad person. His intentions were good; he just wanted to introduce his girlfriend and her daughter to his family, albeit in an extremely awkward way.

Her silent seatmate had turned his death glare towards Neru. Rin bitterly wondered what part of her cheerful, loving mother seemed repugnant to Len. Also, why did he refuse to look Rin in the face? It wasn't like she was going to sprout fangs and go all Medusa on him, turning him to stone!

Rin stopped to pause in that train of thought and considered its possibilities. Honestly, a granite statue of Len might have been easier to have around than this brooding teenager.

His bad attitude was contagious, and Rin could feel herself slowly becoming more and more irritated with the situation. Since her mother was busy talking with her boyfriend, there was no escape from the oppressive silence.

Just when she could barely take it any longer and was ready to open the door and fling herself out of the car, they reached the mall. Len and Rin stepped out of the car, and Leon began to drive away.

Waving goodbye to Leon and her mother, Rin turned to follow Len, only to find that he had disappeared. At first, she just stood there, dazed and confused. Having no idea where he had gone, she decided to start looking around the mall's movie theater first.

Sprinting in the general direction of the theater, she tossed her head left and right, searching through hundreds of shoppers and trying to spot his blonde head of hair. After she had passed the movie theater, a flash of yellow drew her gaze, moving quickly towards the exit on the opposite side of the mall.

She ran to close the distance between them, panting with exertion. Rin bitterly wished that she had exercised during offseason for volleyball, but it had been too cold this January to take her morning jogs. She was out of shape, and it showed. It didn't help that her jeweled flats were murdering her feet with blisters.

When Len was almost in reach, she stopped and yelled, "Wait up!"

A few shoppers stopped to look at the loud girl now bent over double, breathing heavily with her hands on her knees. Len paused mid-stride and spun around to face Rin.

Her face began to spread into a grin of relief, and she opened her mouth to say something. Then she saw the dark look on his face.

"Fuck off."

The words fell like a bucket of ice water dumped over her head, and she made a small sound of surprise, "Wha…?"

He snorted and turned his back to her again. "You heard me. Get lost."

Recovering from her shock, she tightened her jaw and followed after him. Even though she was only about an inch shorter than he was, his natural gait was long and purposeful. She had to take two steps for each one of his strides.

"Hey!" she demanded as soon as she had matched his pace. "Hey, stop!"

Len just kept walking. Desperate and angry, she grabbed his shoulder with an aggression that clashed with her normally passive nature, forcing Len to look at her. Gosh, she thought as he finally stopped, she had barely known the guy an hour, and he already brought out the worst in her.

Wondering what exactly had set him off earlier, she asked, "What did I do to you?"

He glanced at her with a nonchalance that only made her angrier.

"Fine," she said, "be that way. But I'm not going to let you ditch me here."

Her mother had warned her about a recent increase in gang violence in the area, and Neru had said that Rin could not go to the mall alone. Rin knew that her mother was not the flighty overprotective type, so Rin usually took Neru's warnings seriously. Her fear of real danger trumped her apprehension of this boy's possible wrath.

She stuck out her chin and gave him one command, "For the next two hours, you are staying in this mall."

Len's questioning look gave Rin the impression that he was not used to people ordering him around, and the sudden gleam of humor in his eyes warned her that he was not one to take women seriously.

With a matter-of-fact tone to her voice, Rin went into "business" mode, giving him a list of options, "Okay. We obviously have a problem here. I don't know what you were planning, but I don't want to go to 'Second Earth,' and I'm pretty sure that you don't want to see 'Fool Me Twice.'"

Len snorted at this preposterous notion, and Rin resisted the urge to strangle him.

"So let's try to come to a happy medium," she hissed through gritted teeth. "How about 'Double Time?'"

She hoped that Len would take the carrot she was waving in front of his face. "Double Time" was a foreign flick about two soldiers who had tried to desert the navy and landed on a Pacific island during World War II. It was a comedy, and it didn't have enough gore in it to make her sick. Plus, movie-junkie Teto had liked it. That alone was reason enough to see it, even if it wasn't her first choice.

At first, it appeared as if Len was seriously considering her offer, but then he flat out said, "No."

She shouldn't have been surprised this time, but she couldn't believe his irrational behavior. "Why not?"

"Do I need a reason?" he asked.

Rin wanted to fight against this, then she realized that it was a hopeless case. Who could argue with person who had no motive behind their decisions?

"Maybe you don't, but I do," she insisted, making her move in their battle of wills.

After a five second stare-off, Len relented. "Fine."

He casually gave her an once-over, and Rin instinctively crossed her arms over her chest.

"You're ugly and annoying."

Red-hot blood rushed from her neck to her hairline. "Are you a kindergartener? What kind of reason is that?"

The indifferent shrug of his shoulders spoke volumes.

Before she could think through the consequences of her words, she snapped, "If you're trying to make me angry, you've succeeded."

This brought a smile of triumph to his face, and Rin mentally kicked herself for her stupidity. While she inwardly berated herself, Len just stood there smugly, as if he was waiting for her to say something else she would regret.

Resentment boiled in her chest as she mentally evaluated the verbal weapons in her arsenal. She decided that cursing like a sailor would fail to shock this toilet-mouthed jerk into submission, and sweet-talking him probably would not work either. So she settled on her third option: guilt trip.

"Leon-san and my mom just wanted us to get to know each other." Her eyebrows drew together, and she tilted her head, trying to figure him out. "Do you hate your dad or something?"

Even though it was shot in the dark, her words hit home.

"No. I don't," he snarled, and Rin took a step back. "It's just your mom is a dumbass who can't see how fucked up their relationship is."

Rin's blue eyes grew wide and uncomprehending. Her legs trembled. "I…I don't understand."

How could Len have known about her mom's strange taste in men? Or was there some other reason? Was Leon already cheating on her mom? Or…

Her companion made a low growl in his throat, and Rin felt her pulse quicken as she went into a "flight-or-fight" response. Stepping forward and looming over her, Len's body blocked out the florescent light of the mall and covered them both in shadow, like cloud cover before a thunderstorm.

"Your babaa looks just like _her_."

Seeing that Rin was not following his words, he explained himself. "My mom, before she left my dad, had your mom's face."

Rin's immediate reaction to this was disbelief. "You're a liar!" How could Leon-san be the same as her mother, longing for his old wife? Rin's mind went blank. It was too ironic to be true. "And how could you know what she looks like? She left you when you were a child!"

Maybe she was harsher than she should have been, but Len's cutting words had left an open wound. All the ugliness stored in her heart rushed out in gushes, but Len took all of her vile words and threw them back in her face.

"At least she's alive. She didn't go and kill herself."

It seemed that Leon was just as open with his son as Neru was with Rin. Len had already crossed a line before this point, but now he had invaded a part of Rin's life that she never spoke of, not even to her mother. "My dad didn't commit suicide! We…we couldn't afford full treatment, and even if he had done chemo, he still would have died!"

"Cancer," an ugly word that her mother never used. It had been lung cancer that had taken her father away from her.

Rin felt herself pushed to the brink of tears and weakened under the pressure. Her voice grew soft as she defended the man she had never really known. "He wanted to spend more time with us and not in the hospital, so instead of dying for eleven months, he lived for three."

"But you can't even remember that, can you?" Len demanded. "How old were you, five? So why didn't he man up and fight for his life, for you and your mom?"

"I don't know!" Rin screamed.

She knew that they were making a scene, but she didn't care. Let them look; let them stare. If she was going to make a spectacle of herself, she was going to speak her mind. "I could ask you the same thing. Why didn't your mom stay?"

Len seemed to have worn himself out fighting her, and with weary eyes he whispered, "I don't know."

Emotionally bruised and bleeding, the two stood together in silence, looking down at their feet. Rin was trying her best not to cry.

Then Len remembered something. "You still don't believe me, do you?" His smile was bitter and accusing. "About our moms."

Rin neither affirmed nor denied this, so he reached in his pocket, got out his wallet, and handed her a small picture. "Here. This is my mother."

Wordlessly, she took the photo and held it before her eyes. From the exaggerated pose and trendy clothing, Rin guessed that the picture had come from a modeling shoot. Kagamine Haku was a beautiful woman, tall and slender with flowing hair that was prematurely white, and she wore red eye contacts. She had probably added these odd colors to her features to make herself stand out from other models. The strange crimson eyes and bleached hair didn't resemble Rin's mother in the slightest, but when Rin squinted at Haku's face, she gasped.

It was as if Neru had a twin sister. Their noses, their mouths, even the olive shape of their eyes were exactly alike.

"Why did you tell me this?" Usually, Rin would have cried, but her anger left no room for tears. "You…you asshole!"

For the first time in her life, Rin slapped a boy clean across the face. Len took the blow head-on, but acted as if it hadn't hurt him at all. As if he wanted her to slap him.

As his cheek reddened and swelled, he shrugged. "Now you know what I'm going through."

His face spread into a self-indulgent grin, as if he enjoyed spreading his unhappiness. Rin felt violated and hated herself for responding to his aggravation. It was as if she had contracted his ugly emotional disease.

Her mouth opened, ready to spit out the truth, to let him know that she already had to deal with a parent who looked for her dead spouse in her partners, but she held her tongue. She would not stoop to his level. That would just betray her weakness and give him the upper hand.

Trying to compose herself, she spun around, took a few deep breaths, and turned back to face Len once more. But he was already gone.

In the aftermath of their shouting fest, Rin was emotionally spent. She succumbed to the pressure of the salt water bottled up in her chest and bawled her eyes out. Luckily, before some miscreant decided to take advantage of the situation, Rin suddenly remembered Teto. Tearfully, she called her friend.

Within fifteen minutes, Teto had arrived at the mall after riding in the back of her brother's yellow car, which he had gotten during his first year of college. When Teto's outrageously pink hair and curly pigtails came into view with her brother Ted close behind her, Rin threw herself into her friend's arms.

"I'm so glad you're not blonde!" Rin wailed, and Teto comfortingly rubbed her back while Ted gave Rin weird looks.

"What's so bad about blondes?" he asked.

Teto shushed him.

* * *

The next few days were a one sided cat-and-mouse game for Rin. Whenever possible, she would avoid anything remotely Kagamine, always saying no when Leon invited Neru and Rin over to his apartment and distancing herself from her mother's boyfriend and his moody son. Fortunately, Neru and Leon never asked their teenagers to have another "bonding session," seeing how badly the first one had gone.

As the weeks dragged into months, and the months into nearly a year, Neru finally managed to drag Rin over to the Kagamine's apartment. Rin braced herself for another confrontation, but Len never showed up, and Leon said that his son had "other plans."

It turned out that Len was better at this evasion game than she was, and even after her mother came home one day with a sparkling engagement ring on her finger, Rin never heard or saw her to-be stepbrother.

She would not see Len again until the day of her mother's wedding rehearsal.

* * *

AN: Wow! Really didn't expect Len and Rin to vent that much. There was a reason why Len acted like such a jerk, but I'm not going to tell you what it is yet. :)

Notice a connection between the movie titles? All of them have something to do with "two," and I made them all up. "Double Time" is loosely based off of a true WWII story that my grandfather told me. Also, "babaa," the word that Len calls Neru, roughly translates to "old woman," "old hag," or "bitch." I used Japanese because I didn't think the idea would be as well expressed in English.

If you like this story, please review!


	3. Good Friends and Bad Fathers

Disclaimer: All of these Vocaloid characters are not owned by me (but I hold special artistic license over Crabby!Len and Organized!Rin).

* * *

**Blondes Are for the Birds**

**Chapter 3: Good Friends and Bad Fathers**

* * *

Red and white banners drifted in and out of the Ito Secondary School entrance as the building inhaled and exhaled with the wind. Listless in the warm spring air, Rin brushed her hair from her eyes and breathed it all in.

Her graduation ceremony had been nostalgic but uneventful. Rin hummed the school anthem under her breath, swinging her legs over the edge of the low wall she was sitting on. Usually crowded with students, the covered walkway that connected the separate wings of the school was bare and lifeless. Deep in thought, Rin looked out from her perch to watch the cherry blossom trees sway in the courtyard.

It was quiet moments like these that made her feel like she was a year older. It had been three months since she turned fifteen, and over a year since Leon-san and her mom had started dating.

She was a high school student now. Her new uniform was waiting for her on her bed at home. Her graduating friends from Itou were enrolling in different academies, and the underclassmen had bid their tearful goodbyes at graduation. In the last few days of March, everything was growing and blooming and moving at a faster pace than Rin could follow.

She released a heavy breath, then gasped as the wind was knocked out of her and someone grabbed her from behind.

Squeaking in surprise, Rin tried to twist around, but her assailant held her in place.

"Rin-chan! What am I going to do without you?" her attacker blubbered.

Recognizing the voice, Rin rolled her eyes. "Teto. We're going to the same high school."

Kasane Teto ignored her and continued to wail like a lost kitten. "But…but with Neru-san getting married…"

Rin patiently detached the girl from around her waist and threw her legs back over the wall, landing next to her friend. She gave Teto a quick, hard hug. "You're so emotional about these kinds of things."

"But you're moving!"

"I'm moving closer to you!"

"It won't be the same," Teto pouted. "Your new house won't have a false ceiling in your closet."

"Or the microwave where we blew up that thermos," Rin mused.

"Or your flower boxes," her friend reminded her.

Rin frowned a little. Yes, she would miss her purple geraniums and white wax begonias, and she would not see her daffodils bloom this year.

"Now you're making me depressed."

Teto grinned cheekily and grabbed Rin's hand. "Let's get our shoes from our lockers and then walk home like we used to in elementary school."

"That was five blocks. We live miles away from Ito."

"We'll take the subway part of the way, silly!" Teto's bright pink curls bounced and floated on the breeze like cherry blossoms as she dragged Rin forward. "I need some Rin time."

Rin relented. "Okay," she grudgingly conceded, "but I need to get home before six. My mom's rehearsal dinner is tonight."

"Aw, you know you don't really want to go to that!" Teto teased, but as a thought came to her mind, the mocking quirk to her smile drooped. She faced Rin, hands on her tiny hips, demanding immediate attention.

Rin felt her mouth twitch. Even when Teto had a straight face, it was hard to take someone with bubblegum-pink hair very seriously.

Teto leaned in and whispered conspiratorially, "Do you think _he_ will be there?"

Losing the urge to giggle, Rin bit her lip. "I'm not sure," she admitted honestly. "He never showed up for anything else."

Len hadn't bothered to appear at her mom's bridal shower, their 'family' dinners with Leon, or any other pre-marital events, so why would he attend Neru's wedding rehearsal?

"I hope not," Teto declared with a protruding lower lip. "Leon-san seems nice enough, but his son is such a meanie!"

Rin laughed as Teto's words relieved some of the tension locked in her chest.

"He's a jerk. A big, fat, mean jerk," Rin agreed loudly, riding on Teto's wave of impulsiveness. Their eyes met, and they burst into giggles.

As they approached the subway entrance and slipped their tickets into the machine, Rin fell into a thoughtful silence, pushing the revolving bars of the blockade out of her way. Patiently waiting for Rin to come out of her reverie, Teto hummed to herself. When her friend was like this, Teto knew that it was just Rin's way of mentally translating her feelings into words. So, like any good friend would do, Teto dug some change out of her pocket, raced to the subway concession stand, sprinted back, and stuck a candy bar in Rin's face.

Rin accepted Teto's offering, and they munched their chocolate in contented silence while they waited for their subway. The other lines whizzed by, bringing fresh wind to their faces every few minutes.

After inhaling her candy, Rin allowed the sugar in her bloodstream to clear her mind.

Still debating whether she ought to say anything at all, the blonde girl opened and closed her mouth. Teto's prompting smile dispelled Rin's worries, and words spilled out from her heart.

"I really want Len-san to apologize," she admitted to Teto.

Teto hummed appreciatively, encouraging Rin to continue. "He seems like the type of guy that never looks back and regrets nothing, but I want him to remember what he did and to feel sorry like a normal person."

As she continued to speak, Rin began to address the opposite wall, as if explaining her feelings to a concrete slab marked with graffiti would somehow get the message to the person who really needed to hear it: Len. "I want him to feel guilty; I want him to care. What he said…it really hurt!"

"You have every right to feel that way," Teto assured her, laying a hand on Rin's shoulder. "And if he doesn't come to you on his knees begging for forgiveness soon, then I'll make him!"

"Thanks Teto-chan." Rin smiled to her friend, aware that in her own outspoken way, Teto was trying to make her feel better.

"You two are going to be siblings in a week! You shouldn't have to deal with this sort of crap."

"Please, don't say that."

"The crap part?"

"No," Rin groaned. "I don't even want to think about what it will be like having someone like him for a…" She gave an involuntary shiver. "_…brother_."

Teto shrugged. "Well, I can't blame you."

Coming to a shrill halt, the subway pulled up to their station. Teto and Rin slipped past the automatic doors and sat down in two seats across from a workingwoman reading a newspaper.

As the subway lurched into life, Rin swiveled around to face Teto. "What am I going to do?"

"About being related to a total jerk or your mom getting married?"

"Everything," her blonde friend groaned.

"Hm." Teto stroked her chin between her thumb and forefinger. "How about this? I'll get my otousan and kaasan to adopt you, and then we can be sisters!"

"Hah, hah. Very funny."

"I was being serious!"

"As much as I'd love to become an Kasane, I don't think I'm going to be able to get out of this that easily," Rin pointed out, shrugging her shoulders. "Plus, I'd have to listen to Ted-kun's bad music."

"Ooo. Good point." With her hand under her upper lip, Teto's head jerked in a business-like nod. "If I had to pick, I probably wouldn't want Ted as an older brother either. He's a pack rack, and he smells." She delicately pinched her nose.

Rin giggled. "Yeah, why does he still live at your house?"

"He tried dorm life, but the food was bad." To his credit, Rin could see why college food might not have appealed to Ted. Teto's mom was a fabulous cook.

"Pft. He's such a mama's boy."

"I know! We need to get him a nice girlfriend so he can get a life and move out."

"He probably hasn't been able to find one because you hang around him so much!"

"Ah! Don't judge me. My parents take away my allowance all the time, and he's always willing to pay for movie tickets."

"You are such a movie junkie."

"What can I say?" Teto trilled, waving her hand in the air. "I love the theatre."

"It's 'theater.'"

"But 'thee-ay-ter' sounds classier," Teto argued. "Hey, have you heard of that new movie that just came out, about a nurse falling in love with her patient?"

"Nope. How was it?"

They drifted easily into light conversation, distracting Rin from the troubles and worries in her life.

After a few minutes, the subway brought their chatter to a screeching halt as the machine squealed to a stop at the station closest to the Akita home.

Standing up, Rin turned to Teto with her head tilted in concern, "Are you sure you're okay riding home by yourself?"

Teto bobbed her chin up and down and turned her eyes heavenward in an exaggerated roll. "Yes, okaasan."

Pursing her lips, Rin crossed her arms.

Teto laughed at her expression and patted Rin fondly on the head, "Aw, you know I'm teasing. You just tend to mom people sometimes."

Before Rin could get the chance to defend herself, Teto sprung to her feet and shoved Rin out of the sliding doors, waving cheerily as the subway moved out of the station. Grimacing dryly, Rin waved back as Teto's face in the subway window grew smaller and smaller, and finally disappeared around a bend.

* * *

After five minutes of traveling on foot, Rin turned down a side street, walked a few paces, and stopped halfway down the block in front of a whitewashed house. It wasn't particularly special, just an average two story complex that was taller than it was wide, featuring a small terrace on the second floor. The gate was bordered by a cream colored wall a few inches below Rin's shoulders. Rin smiled fondly at the ceramic address plate that she had crafted in elementary school, reading "6721" in curling figures. Unlocking the gate, she slipped inside.

The paved walkway to the door was lined by a tiny yard spotted with random clumps of grass. Unlike her precious flowers, Rin had little to no interest in their lawn and usually left it to die and become overrun by weeds. Neru would occasionally complain about this, but only after a friend or neighbor had commented on their landscaping or lack thereof. As an interior designer, Neru mainly took pride in what her house looked like from the inside.

Finding the front door unlocked, Rin made her way into the entry hall. Even in the yellow-walled genkan, every item had its place, from the pine table supporting a lamp and a vase of peonies to the mounted coat-rack where Rin now hung her school bag.

"Mom, I'm home," she called absentmindedly, stepping on the heel of one shoe and pulling off the other to set the pair by the door.

Her slippers were in the wash, so she stepped forward barefoot, relishing the coolness of the wood floor pressing against her feet.

As soon as Rin reached the kitchen, Neru trotted down the stairs.

Arms laden with wedding odds-and-ends, Neru beamed at her daughter. "Rinnie! How was graduation?"

"Okay I guess." Rin pulled out a stool to sit at their kitchen island. "I'm going to miss all my kouhai, and a lot of my friends are going to other schools." She watched her mother dump all the items in her arms onto the counter to sift through them. "At least I have Teto."

"Mm hm," Neru hummed as she scrutinized the list of rehearsal dinner attendees. "I'm so sad I missed it, but the caterer for tonight insisted on seeing me in person, your Meiko-oba needed a ride to her hotel from the airport, and..."

"Mom. You don't need to explain." Peering at the list, Rin looked at her mother quizzically. "Why are you having your rehearsal a week early anyways?"

"Oh, well, it was more convenient that way. Everyone in the wedding lives in town except for Meiko-oba and a friend of Leon's. Most of them have day jobs, so they wouldn't have been able to come as easily to something on a Thursday night."

"Meiko-oba" wasn't Rin's aunt technically, just a very old friend of Neru's. Rin's mom had a very in-the-moment personality, and the majority of her close friends, besides Meiko, were the people she worked with or saw every day. Of course, Neru loved the people she had met in other cities or stages of life; she just wasn't very good at keeping up with them.

Thus, Neru had planned to throw a small wedding. As far as inviting family members went, besides her childhood neighbor, Haigou Meiko, Neru's immediate family had cut all ties long ago. The topic was a sensitive subject with Neru, and Rin had known little to nothing about her mother's childhood until her alcohol-loving Meiko-oba stumbled into her life.

One night when Rin was seven, Meiko had staggered into their house and passed out on the floor. While Neru ran to the pharmacy for some aspirin, Meiko drunkenly narrated Neru's life story to a wide-eyed Rin. With obvious pride, the redhead described how Neru had rebelled as a teenager, even to the point of becoming a powerful sukeban of her own gang.

Rin hadn't believed Meiko at all. How could her sweet mother have been a delinquent?

"It's truuuue," Meiko slurred, and to prove it, she dared Rin to look and see if Neru still had a four-inch slash on her stomach and another nick on her shoulder, battle scars from a knife fight with another sukeban.

Rin had never noticed these marks before, but on an outing to the pool with her mom, she chanced a peek at Neru's stomach. It was marked by a faded line of white scar tissue. Neru had never undergone any serious surgeries, and the scratch was too intentional and jagged to be the work of anything but a slice to the gut. When Rin spotted a similar cut on her mom's left shoulder, Rin realized that Meiko had been telling the truth.

After that incident, Rin would constantly ask when Meiko was coming to town and would eagerly await the older woman's arrival. This went on to the point that Neru jokingly dubbed her friend "Meiko-oba." With each of Meiko's visits, Rin learned more about her mother.

Neru's obsession with gang fighting eventually evolved into a passion for hairdressing. How this shift came about, Meiko could never coherently explain. Something about Neru dying her delinquents' tresses in outrageous primary colors and chopping their hair in edgy styles to differentiate them from other gangs.

Neru dropped out her third year of high school, declaring that she wanted to pursue her dream and become a hairstylist. Leaving her disapproving family behind, Neru sought employment in the big city and landed an apprenticeship in a well-known salon. It was through a mutual friend that Neru met Rin's father.

The rest of the story, Meiko liked to say, was not worth mentioning. However, Meiko would often observe that marriage had softened Neru in a way that her family's strict rules and prodding had never been able to accomplish. Having a daughter and being in a steady relationship had molded Neru into the woman Rin knew as "Mom."

For that, Rin was extremely thankful. Imagining life with an ex-delinquent, tomboy mother made her head hurt.

"Rin. Rin?" Neru asked, jolting Rin out of her thoughts. "Something wrong?"

"Mm? Oh, no. I was just thinking. Why did you ask?"

"You just looked so serious," Neru remarked lightly and continued to shuffle her scattered papers and paraphernalia.

Noticing her mother's plight, Rin got up to survey the chaos. From the way that Neru was mumbling to herself and reading the same papers several times, it was obvious that she was lost. Wordlessly, Rin nudged her mother to the side and read through a few documents and scribbled sticky-notes.

"The groomsmen and bridesmaids will need to come in for one last fitting tomorrow." Rin looked expectantly at her mom, and Neru nodded fervently. "A few invitations for the wedding were returned because they were sent to the wrong address. You should probably just call those people to see if they can come."

Then Rin picked up the rehearsal attendee list. "Everyone will be able to attend the rehearsal dinner except for Suzune Fuku because her father is in the hospital, but she will be able to come to the wedding."

Moving through Neru's many notes, printed emails, and cryptic scribbles, Rin noted, "Everything looks okay, but there have been some miscommunications with the florist and the caterer, so you'll need to call them, and the flowers for the wedding have been backordered. They should come by Thursday, but just in case, we should probably make some alternate plans. Oh, and the florist wants to know if you want white satin ribbons for your flowers or one of these two shades of yellow." Rin held up three samples of ribbon for Neru to see.

Neru simply gave her daughter a hug. "And this is why you are my maid of honor!" she chortled.

Rin rolled her eyes. When she had agreed to help her mother with the wedding, she had no idea what she was in for. Finding the right wedding cake alone had taken a dozen trips to different bakeries. Rin didn't want to even think about the hours they had spent trying to find a dress shape that would flatter all the bridesmaids' figures. In the end, they had settled on a red velvet cake, strapless dresses with an empire waist, and a combination of light yellow, dove gray, and clean white for the color scheme.

Neru's wedding planner had been helpful, but she was an exact woman who could not comprehend Neru's rants about different shades of light yellow and the folders of clippings Neru had snipped from wedding magazines. Rin acted as a translator, turning a mess of sticky-notes and color suggestions into a coherent wedding plan.

But even through the countless appointments, catering conundrums, and organizational failures, Neru had made everything bright and exciting with her contagious enthusiasm.

Neru was a joy to be around, and Rin almost wished that she didn't have to share her mom with anyone else, especially a distasteful person like Len. Feeling a slight pang of possessiveness, she gave her mother a tender squeeze.

Neru's smiled, but as she peeked over Rin's shoulder, she squeaked at the sight of the oven clock.

"It's already five!"

"Really?" Rin flipped open her cell phone to check the time. "Do you think we can get ready in thirty minutes?"

"Do we have a choice?" Neru pointed out, ushering her daughter to the stairs. "Just throw on your dress, I'll fix my hair, and then we'll go! You can do your make-up in the car."

Rin headed up to her room while her mother tried in vain to clear the kitchen counter of all her wedding-planning clutter.

Veering around the corner of her bed, Rin pushed past a sliding door and entered her walk-in closet, a narrow room walled by racks of clothes. Sieving through her options, a blue dress and several casual tops, Rin settled on a flowing green dress with a hemline that stopped just above her knees.

As she fished out the outfit, she saw a flash of yellow and paused. Her bridesmaid's dress, a softened yellow strapless number, dangled from its hanger, waiting for her to take it out and wear it on the big day. The thought stiffened her shoulders and brought out a long sigh. In a week, her mother would be a Kagamine. Rin allowed herself a lopsided grimace. Where would that leave her?

Rin attempted to brush away her anxieties with a hollow laugh. There was no time to worry about things that hadn't happened yet. She needed to man up, go out there tonight, and support her mother with a smile.

With a slight pout to her lip, Rin closed the closet door behind her, shutting her yellow bridesmaid dress off from the light.

* * *

Surrounded by purposeful disorder, a shirtless teen boy lounged on his bed. His yellowed hair stuck up in all directions, and his graying blue eyes spoke of boredom and lethargy. Deaf to the world, he listlessly bobbed his head in time to the music blaring through his chunky headphones.

A few t-shirts, jeans, and other random wads of unidentifiable objects spotted the bleached wooden floor beneath him. However, besides this light clutter, the space was neatly organized. It was almost as if someone had thrown a few items around just to bring some chaos to the atmosphere, or to annoy someone who preferred clean floors. One electric and one acoustic guitar sat enshrined on their stands in the corner of the room.

Staring nowhere in particular, Kagamine Len sat propped up by pillows against the headboard of his bed, feet pushing his unmade bedclothes to the edge of his mattress. His heavy lids shaded his glazed eyes.

On the first day of the school break, Leon had grounded Len for breaking his curfew the night before and skipping his graduation ceremony, sentencing Len to solitary confinement in his room. Besides texting his friends, fingering the strings on his guitar, and listening to music, Len had been bored out of his mind. Hoping that sleep would make the time go faster, he allowed his eyes to close.

The sharp sound of knuckles drumming on wood interrupted Len's music-induced coma.

"Len?"

Dang. Len scowled at the door and turned up the volume. Just when he thought his "sound-proof" headphones really worked.

"…?" The words were muffled, but Len could tell that Leon was trying to tell him something. He tried to pointedly ignore the sound of knocking against his door.

"…" Leon sighed and let himself in. Sauntering forward, he stood beside Len's bed, looking down at his son and occasionally glancing at his watch as the minutes ticked by. It was almost time for the rehearsal dinner, but Leon was a patient man.

"Len," he said clearly after a few minutes of waiting. "Neru-san and Rin-san are waiting for us." He wanted to give Len a fair chance to respond.

Staring fixedly at a point on the opposite wall, Len reached to adjust the volume on the side of his headphones again, and Leon frowned.

Knowing that Len would continue to ignore him even when he was hovering above his son's head, Leon took the opportunity to reach out and snatch Len's headphones off of his ears.

"Hey!" Len clapped his hands to his naked ears and glared at his father.

Ignoring Len's ire, Leon calmly disconnected Len's headphones from his mp3 player, wrapped the cord around them, and set them neatly on the bedside table. "Now can you hear me?"

Len's answer was silence.

"I know you couldn't go to any of the other events because of… previous plans, but I need you with me tonight. We're going to walk through the line-up for the ceremony."

"I don't need to go." Len snapped. "Just tell me where I'm supposed to be on your 'big day,' and I'll figure it out."

"It's not just that. Neru-san wants you to come, and she'd be disappointed if you didn't show up."

"I don't care about that woman."

"I want you to come." Despite his naturally forgiving nature, Leon could sense Len's stubborn unresponsiveness gradually grating on his nerves. Sometimes he wished that talking to his own son could be as easy as talking to Neru's daughter. "Neru-san is important to me, but so are you."

"You don't act like it. Lately, it's like I don't even exist. All you talk about is Rin and her babaa, as if we're already related." Len's eyes tightened with resentment. "When did you ask me what I wanted?"

Painstakingly, Leon sat down on the end of Len's bed and clasped his hands together. Giving himself a second to think, Leon looked at Len seriously.

"Do you dislike Neru-san?"

"No."

"Do you not want me to get married?"

"I didn't say…"

"I promise you. If you didn't want this, you could just tell me. I would call it all off, and everything would go back to the way it was."

"You make it sound like breaking off your engagement a week before your wedding is easy."

"I'd do it for you. You are my son."

"I don't believe you."

"Len, why are you being like this?"

Why was _he_ acting like this? Len's face flushed as his blood temperature rose. The better question was, why was his father a god-damned idiot?

"You're so full of shit," Len spat out, "You're marrying my mom's fucking clone!"

The skin on Leon's face tightened, and for a moment, all thoughts vanished from his mind. He forgot how to breathe.

"Tell me the truth," Len demanded. "Is she some kind of replacement?"

Leon came back to reality just in time to answer, "No."

"If you think this is going to make things right, to make things like they used to be, you're wrong. She's not mom!"

"I know that." Leon silently mourned the fact that the most words his son had spoken to him in over a year were so full of hatred and resentment. He tried in vain to make Len understand. "In any other woman, a similarity to Haku would have been the reason I wouldn't have married them."

Leon set a heavy hand on Len's shoulder and stared straight into his son's stark blue eyes. "I love Neru-san because she is Neru-san. She's the person I want to spend the rest of my life with, and she's the woman I want to be a mother for you."

After a moment of oppressive silence, Len pushed his father's hand away, muttering, "Bull shit."

Leon's shoulders sagged under the weight of his sadness. "You still don't believe me."

Len said nothing, refusing to make eye contact with Leon.

Leon's eyes clouded with hurt. "When have I ever lied to you?"

Seeing his father's pleading face out of the corner of his eye, Len felt a twinge of guilt, but he quickly squashed the emotion with a wave of anger.

Realizing there was no possible way that he could get through to Len, Leon rose to leave, pausing for a moment to call back, "You are coming to the dinner tonight, or I'll ground you for the rest of the break."

After the door to his room closed, Len waited in bed until he could no longer hear the sound of his father's footsteps down the hallway. Stretching his arms above his head, he stood up and reluctantly reached into his closet for a suit and tie.

* * *

Genkan – entryway

Meiko-oba – Aunt Meiko… I think?

Sukeban – delinquent girl or boss girl

Babaa – old woman, bitch, hag

Side note: Since the pace of this chapter was slow, I threw in a half-naked Len scene just to check and make sure you all were still awake! XD The next chapter will have more action and less long (albeit important) conversations.

Edit: Ah! I forgot to mention! Rin's secondary school, "Ito" is named after Hiroyuki Ito, who I believe is the current CEO of Crypton Future Media and one of the "creators" of Miku Hatsune.


	4. Run Len Run!

Disclaimer: I do not own Rin, Len, Leon, Neru, Meiko, Lily, Piko, Lola, the Peninsula Hotel, Kasumigaseki Station, Hibiya Park, the Tokyo Metro, Tokyo, or Japan…did I miss anything?

* * *

**Blondes Are for the Birds**

**Chapter 4: Run Len Run!**

* * *

Speeding along at approximately twenty-two meters per second, the metro car bumped and wobbled on its way, rushing down the Chiyoda "Green" Line. Sprawled out on one of the seats lining the subway compartment, Kagamine Len grumbled in his sleep, leaning back in his chair with his mouth wide open. The passenger next to him flipped the page of the daily newspaper, the rustling of parchment echoing the sound of air blasting around the iron walls of the subway.

Interrupting Len's nap, an automated voice blared out of a speaker, "You have now arrived at station eight, Kasumigaseki. Please clear away from the doors and exit the metro calmly. Thank you."

At the sudden noise, Len jolted awake and rubbed his eyes, looking around in bleary confusion. He asked the person next to him, "Where am I?"

"Kasumigaseki," the old man muttered over his newspaper, adjusting his round-lens glasses.

"Shit!"

Len's feet hit the floor, and he shot through the metro doors as they closed behind him.

Without a pause, he sprinted up the escalator to the upper tier of the metro station, stopping only once at the mechanical fare gate to thrust a hand in his slacks' back pocket. He needed a few extra yen to pay for the extra distance he had ridden on the subway, but when he drew out his wallet and pried it open, he barely had any change to spare.

A few irritated profanities spouting from his mouth, he looked up to glare at the metal gates standing in his way. His hands pushed up the sleeves of his jacket, and with his head down low, he broke into a sprint and charged at the ticket gates.

At the last possible second before he crashed into the machine, he placed his hands on the metal barrier and vaulted over the gate in a flying leap. Gaping at Len's acrobatics, the stout policeman guarding the station yelled after the boy, but in a few quick strides, Len was soon far out of the officer's reach.

Len's dress shoes slapped loudly against the pavement while he cursed his weird tendency to fall asleep on subway rides. The constant movement was somehow soothing to him, and since he was a child, he always had to struggle to stay awake on the metro.

Two minutes from the station, he saw an entrance to Hibiya Park out of the corner of his eye. Len made a split second decision and dashed inside the Kasumi gate, hoping to save lost time by taking a short cut through Hibiya.

Racing past strolling couples, mothers with their children, and cherry blossom trees in early bloom, Len suddenly felt a drop of water smack against his forehead. The first drip was quickly followed by another and another, until they accumulated into an early spring shower. Len looked up into the sky with his eyes squinted and his fists clenched. He missed his subway stop, and now it started raining? The universe officially hated him.

Along with hastening the budding of the cherry blossoms, the unusually warm March weather had brought a torrent of rain. The downpour stripped the Sakura trees of some of their delicate blossoms, and the pink-white petals soon plastered Len's shoulders and hair. He tried and failed to get the flowers and their pollinated filaments off of himself as he crossed under the Hibiya gate into Hibiya Avenue.

Through the rain, he ran north up Hibiya Avenue, past Harumi Avenue, and turned sharply right onto a side street. He almost lost his cool when he finally saw his destination on the right, the Peninsula Hotel. A bellman in a white uniform began to say, "Welcome to…" but Len pushed through the revolving doors in a flash, leaving the rain behind him.

Standing inside the lobby, he made his way to the receptionist's desk, leaving watery footprints on the floor behind him. The receptionist on duty gawked shamelessly at him, as women had a tendency to do when he approached him. That is, when he wasn't soaking wet and covered in Sakura crap.

"Can you tell me where the hotel chapel is?"

She took an extra minute to ogle the strange boy, and then haltingly answered his question, "Um, fourth floor. Are you a part of the Akita party? The elevators are…"

"Thanks," he curtly replied, leaving her to stick her eyes back into her sockets where they belonged.

Inside the elevator, he took a long look at himself in the mirror. His hair was a shade darker from the rain, and his signature ponytail was coming apart. A few strands had fallen over his ears, and damp tufts of hair clung to the back of his neck. In record time, he had also ruined his only good suit. His shoes were scuffed, his trousers stained, and a button from his coat was missing.

Peeling off his soggy jacket, he wiped some of the moisture off of his face and pressed the button for the fourth floor with his thumb, leaning heavily against the elevator wall as the doors clicked shut.

* * *

A heeled shoe rapped against the polished floor of the hallway outside the hotel chapel. With her arms crossed and her expression grim, Rin glowered at the immobile elevator doors standing next to her. Occasionally, the elevator monitor would flash, displaying a red number "2" or "7," but never stopping on her floor.

A vein began to pulse on Rin's left temple as her blood pressure rose. Where was Len when his future mother's wedding rehearsal had already started?

Neru had assigned Rin to "Len duty," since he was late despite Leon's insistence that his son would show up on time. Rin was expected to greet Len when he arrived, debrief him about any wedding ceremony arrangements, and then drag him to the chapel and down the aisle.

The show could not go on without the bride's maid of honor or the groom's best man, Len, even if Rin would have had it otherwise. She wanted to delay having to put up with the jerk on a daily basis as long as possible, and if that meant he wasn't going to show up at the rehearsal, or the wedding for that matter, then so be it.

She never wore a watch and had forgotten her cell phone at home, so there was no way to tell the time. To mentally entertain herself, she began to think through what she would say to Len when he arrived. What was she supposed to tell a complete stranger who just happened to know everything about her life and was going to be her brother in a week?

'Hey Len! Where have you been for the last 15 months?' or 'Good to see you, Len! Are you still an asshole?'

Obviously, this line of thinking only made her more annoyed with the situation.

At this point, it seemed as if it an eternity had gone by since she had stood here to wait, and every passing second gave her another reason to loathe the person she was waiting for.

"Maybe I should just forget about him and go," she grumbled to herself, looking away from the elevator just as the monitor flashed "4."

Hearing the doors clack open, she jerked around as Len exited the elevator, looking like he had stepped out of a hurricane. His hair was a disgrace; he held his sopping jacket in his fist, and his dress shirt had been soaked through.

Rin had no words to respond to the situation, and instinctively, her eyebrows shot up and her eyes stretched open.

To release the nervous tension, Len reached to rub the back of his neck and curtly explained to Rin, "Missed my stop. I ran."

She nodded mechanically, and then noticed the state of his clothes. Frowning in disapproval, she advised him, "You might want to put on your jacket."

He stuck the sodden coat in her face, as if that was explanation enough. "I'm not wearing this."

"Um, yes you are," she replied in a derogatory tone, as if talking to a child,

Len looked from Rin to his ruined jacket, and then back again, mouth open in disbelief. "Are you nuts?"

"No," she hissed, striding closer to him, "it's just that any idiot would know that a linen shirt is see-through when it's wet!"

Len blinked, "What?"

"Do I need to spell it out for you?" She closed her eyes, took a breath through her nose to calm herself, and maintained steady eye contact with him as she said, "I can see your nipples! It's disgusting!"

Stupefied, Len looked down at his chest. "Oh."

The wet material clung to the contours of his chest and abs like a second layer to his muscled skin.

Rin sighed in exasperation, "Here, I'll wring out your stupid jacket…" she snatched it from him and twisted the fabric, letting the water drip to the floor, and then threw it back at him, "…and then you'll follow me to the chapel."

Just as Len's brain was able to catch up with the situation and think up a few dirty jokes he could make about her 'observation' of him, her heels were already clacking down the hallway. He had no choice but to follow her. Sticking his hands in his damp pockets, he made his way towards Rin.

As soon as Len caught up and matched his stride with her own, she noticed something different about him from the last time they had met. Ten extra centimeters to his height, to be exact. Observing him in her peripheral vision, the girl's eyes narrowed.

Rin naturally resented people who were significantly taller than her, and this older Len was no exception. Anyone who towered over her 158 centimeters of height automatically reminded her of a certain bully from elementary school.

7 year-old Rin had refused to give a bully her bento box, and in retaliation, he had taken her pink pencil case that her father had given to her as a present before he had died. The bully held the pencil bag over her head all of recess, laughing as Rin hopped up and down, trying desperately to get her tiny hands on it. When recess was over, the bully chucked Rin's pretty heart-decorated pencil case in the trash. She wasn't tall enough to reach into the garbage can, and by the time that she returned to the spot with Neru after school, the school janitor had thrown the trash into the incinerator.

It was with these bitter thoughts, and irritated, confused musings on Len's part, that the two entered the chapel where Neru, Leon, and the rest of the bridesmaids and groomsmen were waiting.

"You made it!" Neru's gaze turned first to Rin and then to Len. Her eyes widened. "Len-kun, what happened to you?"

"He missed his stop, didn't have an umbrella, and ran here in the rain," Rin summarized for him, rolling her eyes.

"Oh, you poor baby!" Rushing up to her future stepson, Neru fluttered over him with concern, asking Leon if he could maybe call the hotel for some towels and crying motherly phrases like, "You shouldn't be this wet! You'll catch a cold!"

Uncomfortable with the attention, Len brushed her off gruffly, "Don't freak out. I don't need anything. I'll just air dry off."

At Len's blunt reaction, Neru's face showed a second's worth of hurt, but after she mumbled, "Okay," self-consciously, she bounced back, exclaiming, "Alright, everybody, get into your places!"

Len acted as if he knew exactly where to go, and then began walking the exact opposite direction from where he was supposed to be.

His future stepsister groaned and grabbed his arm. "Just follow me." Rin pulled Len after her.

She placed the both of them rigidly behind the last groomsman and bridesmaid and in front of Len's little cousins Lily and Piko, who were standing with their mother Lola, Leon's younger sister. As soon as they were in place, Rin's hand flinched from Len's bicep, as if the contact had burned her.

When Leon and the minister had placed themselves at the end of the aisle, the elderly minister solemnly pressed the "play" button on an old CD player, beginning Mendelsson's wedding march.

Like wound-up mechanical figurines, all the bridesmaids and groomsmen walked formally two-by-two up the aisle to the slow beat of the music. Occasionally the wedding coordinator, who was working from the sidelines, would stop them and give them advice about their posture or poise. The process seemed to take forever.

Rin's companion wasn't someone she would willingly start a conversation with to pass the time, so when she heard little Lily whining to her mom, she couldn't help but glance back and observe the small family.

Tow-headed Piko was dressed in his Sunday best, patiently holding the upholstered cushion where the rings would be placed. Lily was having a mild tantrum, accidentally dropping some of her flower petals from her basket on the floor while her mother shushed and lectured her. Rin smiled faintly and entertained a silly little wish, a dream in which her father never died, her mother was happy, and she had a real sibling of her own.

It was Len who drew her back into reality with a tap to her shoulder. Like any dreamer imagining something pleasant, Rin resented the person who had the gall to wake her from her daydreaming. Her thoughts whirled and her eyes flashed.

All the anger and resentment she had stored up in her association with him boiled up again, and she spat, "Are you going to apologize to my mom for being thirty minutes late?"

Len's eyebrow rose, and he smirked, "Why should I?"

The only reason he was still here was because of his father's threat to ground him. He wouldn't have shown up otherwise.

The 'devil-may-care' attitude oozing out of his upturned lips and relaxed shoulders tightened the skin on Rin's face. Her teeth clamped together, and her cheeks flared with rage.

When Len casually offered his arm to her, she instinctually wanted to refuse it. Then an evil idea came to mind. Smiling widely, she slipped her hand into the crook of his arm, and cheerily skipped down the aisle, reminiscing about her ballerina and serious dancing days.

All her years of dance classes had taught her two important things: how to avoid stepping on her partner's feet, and how to make him fall flat on his face.

About midway down the aisle, Rin's thin leg snaked dexterously around Len's left ankle, and with a feather-light push to his back, she sent him tumbling. Unable to catch himself, Len's nose, face, and body smashed painfully into the wooden floor.

Rin didn't even bat an eyelash, continuing towards the altar as if nothing had happened.

It wasn't until she heard a few gasps and giggles from the bridesmaids up front that she turned around, pretending to be surprised. "Len! Are you okay?"

He didn't move for a second or two, and then gradually lifted his head as she approached him, teeth bared in a snarl.

"I'm fu…freaking fine," Len snapped, mindful of his language when his baby cousins were standing right behind him.

Then Len's nose started gushing blood.

"Oh my god," Len's Aunt Lola cried, stepping in front of her children to shield their eyes and handing a tissue from her pocket to her nephew. "What happened?"

"I don't know!" Rin dramatically blubbered, as the wedding attendees swarmed around them. "We were just walking along, and then Len tripped out of nowhere and f-fell!"

Her concern wasn't completely contrived. Rin impulsively bit down on her thumbnail as red liquid saturated the Kleenex Len held to his face and the wedding guests flocked around him. She'd only meant to embarrass him, not to break his nose!

Lola nodded mindfully, and with the practiced eye of a plastic surgeon, she examined Len's nose.

Wanting to be anywhere but in the center of the chapel with a bloody rag on his face, Len shifted uncomfortably.

"Sew, whaz w'ong with meh?" he mumbled nasally through the bloodied tissue after a second or two of silence.

"You really need to be more careful," Len's aunt advised, "It's not broken, but you came very close to fracturing the bone. It'll swell a bit, but just put some ice on it, and it'll be fine."

Switching from her "doctor" to her "dotting aunt" setting, Lola smiled and ruffled his hair fondly. "It's not manly to be a klutz, squirt."

Looking at the floor in embarrassment, Len grunted. Rin put a hand to her chest in relief. A bloodied nose wasn't nearly as bad as a broken one and wouldn't leave any lasting damage. Now she had no reason to feel guilty. Her eyes locked in on her feet. She told herself that again and again as a twinge of shame turned the contents in her stomach.

As the rest of the men and women drifted back into their places and Len wiped his nose, Rin's insides continued to churn with guilty bile. She rubbed her arms to try to get rid of the sensation, but couldn't remove the feeling of being dirty, a girl rubbed in vegetable oil and rolled in mud.

Maybe she hadn't critically injured Len, but she _almost_ did. Her impulsive prank might have led to serious consequences. When had she become a sadist who enjoyed other people's pain? This wasn't her. She shook her head. Out of defensive habit, she wanted to blame the change on a certain blonde boy that had walked into her life. But she knew in her heart that he wasn't completely at fault.

There was no way that she would be able to explain all of these complications to herself in the little time she had now, so to placate her guilty conscious, she moved towards Len. Getting down on her knees and into his face, she asked with concern, "Still bleeding?"

Len's face turned a dark shade of red, and since he couldn't think of words nasty enough to describe this she-demon, he growled wordlessly.

Rin's eyes took a downcast hue. What had she expected? It wasn't as if he was going to thank her for giving him a nosebleed. To keep up with appearances, she released a hollow laugh, bounced to her feet, and skipped away, humming a merry tune to herself.

For a girl who was usually considerate of others, revenge was sour and tasted of limes.

* * *

Len had gone to the bathroom to clean up, and the drama of the situation eventually died down. Before they all left for the rehearsal dinner, which would take place at a delicious Italian restaurant, the wedding guests sat around a table provided by the hotel and had themselves a drink or two.

Laughter and gaiety dominated the atmosphere, perpetuated by Neru's fun-loving comments and Leon's subtle humor, except for the air swirling around two teens in the corner. In a twist of fate, Len and Rin had been placed next to each other in the seating arrangement.

Len grasped his soda with a death grip, never taking his eyes off of Rin, and Rin tried her best to ignore him, laughing along to one of her mother's enthusiastic stories. While the source of his hatred's attention was drawn elsewhere, Len glanced down thoughtfully at the Pepsi in his hand. With care and precision, he repositioned his cup slightly closer to Rin, got up from his seat and grabbed another bottle of soda. He slowly refilled his glass until the dark bubbling liquid touched the rim.

He caught his aunt and uncle's attention from across the table and started talking to them, pretending not to notice when his wrist lightly touched his glass of soda and tipped it over, sending its contents straight into Rin's lap.

Rin noticed a wet, stickiness wash over her body, and glanced down. Her face paled. She stuck her fingers into the soda and held her skirt up to the light. There was no way a stain that big and that brown was going to come out.

"Oh." Len craned his neck towards Rin, as if just realizing that he had ruined her favorite dress, "I'm so sorry. I'm such a _klutz_ sometimes."

His voice reeked of pretended remorse, but the skin around his eyes crinkled slightly, suggesting a suppressed smile.

She wanted to shriek, to react in a way that would bring attention to the situation, but she bit her lip. No, she wasn't going to let him win. Not this time.

As cool as a cucumber, Rin turned away from the fiend and resumed her conversation with her mother's friend. It wasn't until Neru noticed the odd looks thrown her daughter's direction and made Rin come with her to the ladies room that Rin retreated from the table. Under the yellow lights of the hotel bathroom, Rin's stone façade cracked, and she showed her true colors.

"If we send this to the dry cleaners, do you think…" Rin blubbered, her heart-shaped face looking miserably back at her from her reflection in the mirror. The green fabric was splattered with murky brown liquid from the waist to the hemline, and Rin's mascara was beginning to smear from the tears building in her eyes.

Teto had helped her pick out this dress. They had spent hours in a local shopping center searching for the perfect outfit for each other. Teto had fallen in love with a tailored navy number, and Rin had found her green dress in the most remote corner of the most remote store in the mall. It was the ruined memories that were making her emotional about this, not the silly outfit.

"Honey," Neru cooed remorsefully, standing behind her daughter with her hands on Rin's shoulders, "let's go home and get you changed."

"He did this on purpose, you know." With her weak emotions channeled out of her system, there was room in Rin's psyche for a moment of rage. "He wanted to get me back for…"

She bit her tongue before she admitted to purposefully tripping Len and almost breaking his nose.

Her mother shook her head, "This isn't any good, Rinnie. Is this how you want to treat your future brother?"

"He's not my brother! He's a jerk, and I don't want to be related to him!"

Neru cringed at the words, but Rin continued to vent.

"Why did you have to get married so quickly anyways? Did you think all these problems would just go away? What kind of 'family' will you and Leon be if your kids hate each other?"

Aware of her daughter's need for a listening ear, Neru stood firm, no matter how much Rin's accusations pained her. She patiently let her daughter rant and tire herself out enough to be able to stop and listen.

"You know that Leon is going to be relocated to a different clinic." Pulling her daughter into an embrace, Neru soothingly stroked Rin's back. "They needed a good physical therapist, and it was an offer he couldn't refuse. He'll have to find an apartment on the other side of town. We didn't want to be apart, but we both wanted to get married before we moved in together because we wanted what was best for you and Len."

Even though she didn't want to be reasonable, Rin could see the sense in her mother's argument.

"You're only going to be together for three more years of high school anyways."

Rin frowned at her mother, "'Only' three years?"

Neru laughed dryly, "It'll go by much faster than you think."

Turning from her mother and contemplating her teary face in the mirror, Rin pulled her grimace into a weak smile.

"That's my girl," Neru pinched Rin's right cheek, and Rin swatted her hand playfully away.

"It's not like Leon and I haven't considered the problems between you two," Neru said. "We just decided that we wanted to fix the situation together as a couple, and the best way to do that was to get married and make the two of you stepsiblings!"

"You really couldn't have thought of a better way?" Rin whined, turning back to face her mother, "Our house is going to be a war zone."

"I get the feeling that it'll get worse before it can start getting better," Neru said informatively.

Rin's mouth quirked to the side. "And that's supposed to make me feel better?"

"Ooo, don't sass me!" Neru pouted. "You've never had a sibling before, but believe me, even real brothers and sisters don't always get along."

"I know. I hang around Ted and Teto all the time."

"No, no. Actually having a brother is a whole different ball game. You can't understand what it's like to have as sibling by just watching other families' problems."

Tapping the side of her cheek contemplatively, Neru added, "Sometimes, arguing is a way for people to get things out of their systems. You know loving couples that stay together and love each other, but fight all the time?"

"No."

"That's how your daddy and I used to be, but that didn't mean we didn't care about each other. It's just how we communicated."

Rin looked at her peppy, non-confrontational mom with new eyes, "I didn't know that."

Neru smiled fondly. "You were very small."

With an uncharacteristically somber expression on her face, Neru gazed over Rin's shoulder to fix her glazed eyes thoughtfully on some point in the distance. "I think that people only _really_ argue about the big, bad, important things with someone we understand and trust. We can push each other's buttons and say things that we normally would never say."

What Neru was suggesting sounded more than a little crazy to Rin, but when she put her first confrontation with Len in the context of her mother's philosophy, suddenly things made a bit more sense. Len and Rin might have been opposites in many, many ways, but they both had to deal with the absence of a parent and all the emotions and complexes that came along with it.

Whether by death or disappearance, the forces that had taken Len's mother and Rin's father away from their children had irrevocably changed them. It was a part of who they were, just as much as Len's blue-green eyes and the soft curl at the edge of Rin's cropped blonde hair defined what they looked like.

"Maybe Len-kun and you don't realize it yet, but I think he's the best possible candidate to be your stepbrother."

Rin looked at her mother in shock.

"From what you've told me, you said things to him that you would never have shared with me!"

"Mom, it wasn't like that…"

"Nuh uh." Neru held out a manicured hand. "Let me talk. Now, he may have not been very sensitive about it…"

"He was an ass."

"Don't use nasty words!" Neru lectured lightly. "Anyways, where was I? Oh, yes. He may not have done it in the nicest way, but you weren't particularly nice to him either. Even though you fought, the important think is that you both allowed each other to open up. That's healthy!"

Rin gave her mother a long look. "If you're marrying into the family to find someone for me to vent to, just get me a psychiatrist."

"Rinnie. You know that shrinks don't help."

Knowing her mother, Rin could read the hidden message in Neru's statement. Even though Neru had tried some of the best psychologists, therapists, and grief counselors, she still had spent half of her life looking for her husband in all the wrong places and in the worst relationships.

Neru's eyes crinkled in a twinkle of a smile. "The secret to mental wellness is healthy relationships with people you love who love you."

Rin allowed her mind to process that idea for a second, digesting the thought.

"You know what?" Neru declared confidently, drawing Rin out of her ponderings. "I think Len-kun is your cure, and you are his, just like Leon was for me. And if I'm right, this family might just work out." She winked. "Plus, home life with you two at each other's throats all the time is sure to be entertaining!"

"Mom," Rin moaned. Then Neru laughed, and Rin couldn't resist laughing as well.

Sticking out her hip, Neru exaggeratedly extended her arm to her daughter. "Let's get back home."

With embellished pomp and circumstance, Rin accepted her mother's arm, and the mother and daughter moved forward together.

* * *

"Oh, you must be Rin!"

Rin quickly whipped out her manufactured smile for the millionth time that night, shaking hands and making niceties with yet another complete stranger. The moment she had walked into the Italian restaurant in her clean, blue dress, her mother had disappeared into a crowd of well-wishers, and Rin had been stuck in small-talk conversations with people she had never met.

Thankfully, during the tiring process she had remained unmolested by Len, who was busy making light conversation with the guests. Well, mostly the female ones. She tried to subtly glance his way, but her casual gaze hardened into a glare as she watched a trio of attractive women giggle and chortle at something Len was saying. Rin huffed to herself. Why someone so antisocial and disagreeable to her could be charming to anyone was beyond her understanding.

Remembering that she had a guest to entertain, Rin turned back to the woman standing before her.

"So nice to see you! You work with my mom, right?"

"Yes!" The woman seemed delighted that Rin appeared to recognize her. "We both work in the same company, except I deal more with wall paints and coordinating interior colors."

"Oh, really. That's so interesting." Rin commented without the slightest inflection to her voice. At this point, she didn't have the energy to even pretend to be interested.

"I personally love it," Neru's brunette coworker added. "It's a dream job. The only thing I'd rather be doing is maybe naming paint or nail polish colors. I'd call them things like Arabian Night for a really nice purple, or True Love for a deep red…"

"How cool."

"I know! All I thought about when I was getting my college degree was what to name colors. Like I'd look at a sunset and think, those colors would look great on someone's wall!"

"Mm hm."

The woman continued to chatter about her "knack with colors" and different shades of "earthy green" until Rin could barely take it anymore. Then she heard a familiar voice calling her name.

"Rin-Rin!"

Rin turned around just in time to intercept her red-eyed and red-faced adopted aunt.

"Did you miss your Meiko-oba?" Despite the full glass in her hand, Meiko managed to clobber Rin with a boa-constricting hug.

Looking concernedly at the drunken woman, Neru's coworker mumbled something about "not wanting to butt into family reunions," and moved on to find another unsuspecting victim to babble to.

"Of course I missed you!" Relieved to see someone she knew, Rin returned her aunt's embrace, but not without a skeptical glance at the unnamed liquid in Meiko's glass.

"Have you been drinking again?"

"Yup," Meiko chortled, taking another swig. "Parties with free drinks are the greatest!"

Rin groaned while Meiko giggled hysterically at some inside joke with herself.

"Why do I always have to take care of you?"

While concentrating on her aunt's drunken escapades, Rin failed to notice someone walking up behind her.

"Who is this?"

Rin took her eyes off Meiko and saw the last person she would want involved in this situation. Len.

"Um." Rin's brain buzzed. What to say, what to say…

She hastily introduced the two of them to each other, "This is my mom's friend, Haigou Meiko. Meiko-oba, this is Kagamine Leon's son, Len."

"Ohhhh." Rin's tipsy aunt ran her eyes up and down the fifteen year-old boy, then smiled lecherously. "Nice to meet cha, hot pockets."

Ignoring the shocked expression on Rin's face and Len's bemused smile, Meiko turned to her adopted niece. "You know, I could eat this kind of guy for a snack. Yeah, eat him as a snack, if I was like…" Meiko counted on her fingers, "a bazillion years younger."

Rin's jaw dropped, and Len snorted. What was with this jerk and women? Was it pheromones? Some sort of cologne he wore? It didn't make any sense!

Rin stuttered, "Uh, Meiko-oba. I think you've had a little too much to drink."

"What? I only just started! I could drink all night. Yeah, all night long!"

Despite Meiko's flailing and ranting, Rin did not miss the soft chuckles coming from her future stepbrother. Rin's lips tightened, and the temperature in her head began to rise.

Wanting to get her source of embarrassment out of Len's sight before Meiko said something really outrageous, she began guiding her surrogate aunt towards the corner of the room. "Sure. How about you come over here with me, and we find you a place to sit down."

Rin left Len behind without a word, but not before she gave Len's laughing face a good hard glare. Even if her aunt was a raving drunk, why did he have the right to find something funny about the situation? Under Rin's gaze, Len stopped chuckling to himself, but his blue eyes danced.

This last moment of eye contact did not go unnoticed by Meiko. "Oooo." She gave Rin a lopsided smile. "Don't think I didn't see that! Is he some kind of secret boyfriend you're not telling me about or somethin'? Hm? Cuz boyfriends that are kept secret from your oba-chan are not real boyfriends. You can tell me anyyything."

Deciding to humor Meiko, Rin said, "Well, here's the deal. I hate him, and he's going to be my stepbrother in a week."

"Wow! That's kinky. You know, getting it on with your stepbrother is really kinky, right?"

Rin's face fell flat, and she slapped a palm to her forehead with a groan. "Oh God."

Trying to reason with this woman was like talking to a horny goldfish swimming in alcohol.

"Really kinky," Meiko mused. "And you hate his guts? What, do you have hate sex or something?"

"No, Meiko-oba."

Rin gently removed the glass of alcohol from Meiko's hands, setting it down on the table and walking up behind Meiko to usher her staggering aunt to the far side of the room. "I don't have time to sober you up right now, so can you just sit down on this nice couch and stay put? I'll bring my mom over in a bit to say hello."

At the mention of Neru, Meiko perked up. "Neru-chan's coming? Okay, I'll wait right here. Just bring her right over, and I'll give her some talking to. Or she can give me some talking to. Well, we'll talk about something good." She swayed a little. "Something good…" And just like that, she started snoring.

Sighing heavily, Rin shook Meiko to jolt her back awake. "Don't sleep, okay? Otherwise I won't be able to bring Neru over."

"Okaaay. Nooo sleeping."

Meiko's eyelids drooped for a second, but she managed to stay awake just long enough to murmur, "Neru…lovin'. In love 'gain. Neva thought… Sewww 'appy fur…"

"Shhh." Rin sat down beside Meiko, knowing that she couldn't leave her aunt in such a childlike state.

"'appy fur…"

"Yes. I'm happy for her to."

Rin wearily allowed her aunt to use her shoulder as a pillow. Well, Rin thought to herself as she thanked a waiter for giving her a glass of punch, it seemed as if the rest of her night was going to be spent babysitting Meiko. Not as if she minded. Rin took a long hard drink out of her glass. She'd take any opportunity to get away from all the crazy blondes in her life.

Meiko began humming the wedding march under her breath.

Smiling, Rin softly sang along, "Here comes the bride…"

* * *

A.N. While writing this chapter, I really got attached to Meiko as a character. She's like the crazy alcoholic aunt that you never had and always wanted. Oh, and Meiko's "hot pockets" comment? That's not really supposed to make sense. XD Gosh, Meiko and her weird, perverted sense of humor. Wise!Neru is also the greatest. I would definitely go to her for advice.

As an extra note, all the places I mentioned at the beginning of the chapter? They're all real. You can Google them, and even track Len's route to the Peninsula Hotel via Google Earth if you like. It took a lot of research, but I wanted to capture the moment in a convincing way. It is also technically possible to jump over the fare gate at a subway station, but I wouldn't exactly suggest it. Subway security guards can be scary.


	5. All Dressed in White

免責事項 : 私は自分のボーカロイドのソフトウェアまたはその文字をしない。クリプトンは私のものではない。ヤマハは私のものではない。私を訴えるしないでください。ありがとうございます。

**Translation**: (using Google Translate) "Disclaimer: I do not own Vocaloid software or its characters. Crypton is not mine. Yamaha is not mine. Please do not sue me. Thank you."

**Dedication**: This chapter is dedicated to the reviewers who have been with me since the beginning: **Seacat Topaz** (you always have something smart to say!), **Higashino Ruuya** (I think I confuse her sometimes…), **67rosary-bead42 **(your knowledge about Japan is astonishing!), and **Campanella** (your reviews are so thoughtful and nice. They make me want to smile and write more!).

**Extra Bonus: **There was a dream sequence originally at the beginning of this chapter. It includes Rin's father and some dreamy romance between Rin and…? ;) Go check it out at Blondes Are for the Birds: Deleted Scenes.

* * *

**Blondes Are for the Birds**

**Chapter 5: All Dressed in White**

* * *

Complete darkness pressed against Rin's eyes when she opened them on the morning of her mother's wedding day. Wondering what time it was, Rin lifted her arm unsteadily off of her mattress and reached to the side of the bed.

The blackness stung her vision and her pupils dilated to adjust to the lack of light as she groped around her bedside table and lifted her alarm clock to her face. The digital time flashed after she pressed a button on the side of the machine, reading "6:01 a.m." in electric white numbers.

Rin groaned loudly and buried her nose back into her pillow. Two hours. She had woken up two hours before her alarm was supposed to go off.

Usually, she would have been able to fall straight back into dreamland, but sleep just wouldn't come to her. The same anxiety that had kept her awake late into the night refused to let her rest for an hour or two more.

Today, her mother was getting married, and Rin had never felt so sick in her life. Bile rose in her throat, bringing a nauseously cold taste to her tongue. Her head weighed heavily on her pillow, her stomach ached groggily, and her body was as sore as Meiko with a hangover. As pathetic as it was, Rin couldn't silence all the noisy worries swirling around in her brain, even though she knew stressing about her mother's marriage would only make her feel worse.

There were just so many questions she hadn't thought to ask. Would Leon eventually adopt her? Would she still be an "Akita?" How was she going to avoid her terror of a stepbrother at high school and at home? Would her mother still have time for her? Would Leon and Neru decide to have another kid? A shiver shot up Rin's neck at the thought. Although a little brother or sister might have been nice, the last thing Rin needed was another connection between Len and herself, much less a blood-related one.

Rin thrust her fingers into her hair, pushing her palms to the sides of her skull as her temples throbbed painfully. She'd had enough of being stuck in her own head all night!

Stumbling out of bed, slipping on her contacts, and pulling a pair of socks out of her drawers, Rin fumbled her way quietly down the stairs so not to wake Neru. In the kitchen, she poured herself a glass of water from the refrigerator and grabbed a pair of kitchen scissors from the utensil drawer.

Several vases full of flowers stood on the kitchen island, premarital wedding gifts to Neru from friends and family. Some of the arrangements were professionally done, but others were clusters of grocery-bought bouquets that had been simply thrown together. So Rin tied her hair back into a ponytail, rolled up her pajama-top sleeves, and began working on them to distract herself.

Removing some empty vases from the china cabinet, Rin began aggressively attacking the stalks of the plants, shortening and rearranging the flowers in their new containers with a vengeance. Petals periodically fell on the kitchen counter as she rapidly stripped the plants of their leaves. The amateur florist would then fiddle with the positions of the flowers until she was satisfied with an arrangement. A few roses pricked her fingers with their thorns, but she didn't notice as she busied herself with her task.

By the time the oven clock read "8:00," every bud and bloom had been set into a new pose, and containers stuffed with flowers lined the surface of the white countertop. For a finishing touch, Rin grabbed a spool of white satin ribbon from Neru's box of present-wrapping materials and tied an elegant bow around the belly of each vase.

By "8:10" it was past time for Neru to be up, so Rin decided to go and check on her mother upstairs. Unlike her insomniac daughter, Neru was still deeply asleep, hugging her pillow like a teddy bear and drooling on the sheets. Rin gently shook her awake.

"Mom. Mom."

Neru rolled over, wriggling out of Rin's grasp. "Ten more minutes…" her mother moaned.

"No, Mom. Today's your big day!"

"Hm?"

"You're getting married!"

Neru blinked several times, "Oh, yes. Yes I am." She grabbed her glasses from her bedside table, slipped them on, and squinted at Rin. "Ah! You have such dark bags under your eyes! Did you not sleep well?"

"Um, no." Sitting down next to her mother on the bed, Rin glanced down at Neru with a lopsided frown. "Why did you sleep so well?"

Neru's head titled slightly to the side. "Should I not have?"

"Well, like I said, it's your wedding day."

"Oh, honey," Rin's mother chuckled and sighed, "I've been through this drill before, remember?" Neru smiled sleepily. "I know Leon will be a wonderful husband, so I'm not nervous. I'm just happy."

"Okay." Rin shrugged. "I just came to tell you that your friends will be over to pick you up in two hours, so you might want to eat something and get ready."

"Can't I just sleep a little longer?"

"You were the one that asked me to wake you up at 8. I actually let you sleep until 8:10."

"Wow. Ten whole minutes."

"That's all you asked for, remember?" Rin let her mouth hang open and her eyes droop as she imitated a groggy Neru, "'Just ten mooore minutes…'"

Neru was peppy and cheery at all times of the day except in the early hours before she got her coffee. Mornings just weren't her cup of tea. Rin wasn't naturally a morning person, but to go on her daily jogs and take care of her "sleeps-like-a-log" mother, she trained herself in the art of getting up at any hour necessary.

"Fine, fine. I'll get up Miss Wedding Drill-Sergeant." Neru blew a strand of hair out of her face, threw her legs out of the covers, and placed her feet on the floor. "I feel like I'm in bridal boot camp."

"It's not that early! I was up at 6!"

"6 a.m.? Oh Rinnie. No wonder you're still cranky!"

Deciding to ignore her mother's jab, Rin chided, "Well, if you want to have enough time to shower," she glanced at her mother's exposed legs, "and shave, you need to get going."

"Coffee first, shower second." Neru had her priorities.

"Okay. Can you make me a cup?"

"I will if you come and sit with me. Coffee tastes better when you're drinking it with someone."

"But I want to call Teto-chan first…" Rin said as she followed her mom down the stairs.

"Sweetie, she's not going to be up this early."

"I just want to check and see how her grandmother is doing."

"Then text her now and call her in a couple of hours. Even if Teto's obaasan is as tough as nails, I doubt that she'll be able to kick her daughter and her granddaughter out of bed when she's this sick."

"Hah hah, Teto's obaasan usually makes sure that everyone is up early over at her house. Remember when I went with Teto on a visit in secondary school?"

"How could I not? You came home in tears."

"It was exhausting! She woke us up at 5:30 and tried to teach us how to conduct a tea ceremony. Teto was so tired she fell asleep halfway through. The rest of the day, we had to clean the whole house and repaper all her shouji screens. When I got home, I ached so much I could barely move!"

Teto's obaasan had the unusual habit of only inviting her granddaughter and grandson over when she needed housework done. Teto and Ted quickly learned to dread these visits. However, if she really needed her family around, when she had thrown out her back or caught a cold, she would conveniently forget to call Teto's mother. The local doctor acted as a liaison between the two whenever Teto's obaasan was too cranky and stubborn to ask for family help. This time, it was a bad case of tuberculosis that was keeping Teto's obaasan bedridden.

"I'm sorry that your friend couldn't come with you to the wedding. It would have been nice for you to have a girl your age around."

Humming to herself, Rin's mom opened a tan-painted cabinet door and pulled out their syphon coffeemaker, flicking on a front burner of the kitchen stove.

"Oh, it's fine," Rin assured her mother as Neru poured water into the bottom chamber of their coffeemaker and measured four scoops of her favorite blend from Café Hana into the upper chamber, finally screwing the two pieces together. "I have you and Meiko at least."

Neru set the coffeemaker on the stove and poured herself and Rin a glass of orange juice as they waited for the water to begin to boil.

"Hmph," Rin's mom sniffed, "but I'll be busy since I'm the bride, and I doubt Meiko will stay sober long enough to have a decent conversation with you."

Chin resting on her crossed arms as she leaned against the kitchen island, Rin snorted and a mischievous twinkle sparked in her eye, "I'll bet you 500 yen that she'll be wasted by the time she comes to pick you up."

Neru took a swig of her orange juice and grinned. "It's a bet."

Smiling thoughtfully to herself, Rin watched the coffee maker as the bubbling water began to turn into vapor, pushing itself through the center tube and the coffee filter into the upper section, like an anti-gravity hourglass. Since Rin was a little girl, the process had always fascinated her, as if it was a scientific magic trick. Once the top globe of the contraption was ready, Neru switched off the stove, and a vacuum effect sucked the coffee back down into the bottom chamber, leaving only the coffee grinds in the upper compartment. She poured her daughter a mug and then prepared a cup for herself. Rin drank the brew straight and black, while Neru doctored it up with sugar and creamers.

"If man has no tea in him, he is incapable of understanding truth and beauty," Neru stated as she lifted her drink to her lips, waxing poetic.

"We're drinking coffee."

"Hm. No difference." Setting her cup on the counter, Neru began digging through the fridge to find some ingredients for a simple breakfast, "Rin, would you like for me to make you an omelet or something?"

"No thanks. I'm not really hungry."

"Ah! You need protein though! A good breakfast will make your day good as well."

"Mom, I really don't feel like eating anything. My stomach has been bothering me."

"Suit yourself. As for me, I'm going to have myself a tasty, fluffy omelet and write 'love' on it in ketchup."

"Are you trying to make me jealous?"

"It was your favorite thing to eat when you were a little girl."

"Maybe some other time."

"Okie doke."

After Neru had finished eating, the two women busied themselves with preparations for the day, washing their hair, primping, applying a base of makeup foundation for the wedding makeup artist to work off of, taking out their wedding clothes wrapped in protective plastic coverings, and chit-chatting to pass the time.

At 11 o'clock, a car horn blared in front of their house. Neru and Rin hurried out the door, donning their heeled shoes and carrying their dresses over their arms. Neru's burden was particularly heavy, and a few of her friends had to help her into the white stretch-limo. Inside the car, the women giggled and chortled together amiably.

"Neru-chan, Rin-Rin! Join the party!" a boisterous voice hollered.

Neru and Rin looked towards the driver's seat to see Meiko lounging at the front, posed like a queen on her leather-upholstered throne.

Neru moved up to sit beside her. "Meiko, don't tell me you've started drinking already?"

"Nope. I'm clean and sober." Neru smiled brightly at Rin as her daughter realized that she had just lost 500 yen.

"Now," Meiko continued, "if you had accepted my offer for me to throw you a bachelorette party the night before your wedding…"

"Knowing your tastes, it would have been at a male stripper club or a megane-doctor cosplay joint, something weird would get in my drink, and I would end up loosing my shoes and shirt in the process."

"Ha ha, I love how you know me so well." Meiko clapped her old friend on the back. "Admit it though, it would have been fun~"

"I went through that sort of treatment in high school; I'm not doing it again." Neru's friends laughed and giggled with her.

"Okay, I brought some stuff to loosen everyone up." With a twist of her wrist, Meiko pulled a plastic bag full of mini plastic bottles of alcohol out of her purse. "Tequila, whisky, sake, or vodka? Take your pick."

For a moment, the limo full of female office workers, single moms, homemakers, and working mothers just stared at the brunette.

"Tequila," Neru decided.

"Sake."

"Sake for me to!"

"Whisky~"

"I'll have a vodka."

Meiko paused to look at the woman requesting the drink before handing her a vodka, and burst into laughter.

"Nuh uh! No booze for minors!"

Her adopted niece gave an over-exaggerated pout. "Aw, no fair," Rin whined, holding back a smile, and the women around her started to laugh along with Meiko. They giggled merrily the whole way to the Peninsula Hotel.

* * *

As soon as they arrived, Neru was whisked away for last-minute fittings, hairstyling, makeup, and other preparations for her big moment. Bridesmaids, florists, and other wedding and hotel employees dashed around like march rabbits according to the orders of the wedding coordinator and Rin's helpful suggestions.

When the final half-hour before the 4 o'clock wedding had come, and guests began filing into the chapel, Rin told her mother that she would be back in a few minutes, closing the door of the dressing room behind her. Outfitted in her yellow bridesmaid's dress and wearing a fine layer of makeup, the maid of honor made her way through the hallways outside of the chapel to the rooms where the groomsmen were getting ready.

She stopped in front of the door leading to Leon's compartment and hesitated as she raised her fist to knock. Rin bit her lip. Was this really a good idea? Should she actually talk to him? Her face paled. She was risking everything by doing this. Her hand shook, but her mouth firmed as her determination increased. No, Leon deserved to know the truth. That didn't change the fact that she was scared out of her wits.

"Okay, Rin," she muttered to herself. "You've come this far. You can do this…"

"Are you talking to yourself?"

Rin's arm froze before she made contact with the door, and she looked up into the scowling face of her future stepbrother.

"Len-san!" she squeaked, withdrawing her hand. Why did he always appear at the most inopportune times?

The blonde teenager boy was dressed to the tee in a finely pressed grey suit and white satin tie. The colors suited his tanner complexion, just as Rin's yellow dress complemented her lighter skin, and the outfit fitted his figure nicely, but his brusque aura and unkempt ponytail clashed with the entire look.

"What are you doing here?" he demanded.

His commanding tone and darkening expression caused her eyebrows to draw together and her mouth to draw down into a frown.

"I'm here to talk to Leon-san."

She had as much of a right to be there as he did.

"Then I'll go in with you."

He moved casually to knock on his father's dressing-room door himself, but Rin stopped him.

"In _private_,_"_ she added.

Her eyes narrowed and his fingers rolled into fists. Their stare off lasted over a few long seconds, then Len relented.

"Whatever." He called in to his father, "Oyaji, Neru-san's daughter is here to see you."

"Hm? Oh, then bring her on in."

Len opened the door for Rin with mock civility, bowing slightly as she passed, but she ignored his antics, focusing instead on the task at hand.

She waited nervously until the door had closed behind her and Len's footsteps had faded down the hallway before she approached Leon. He stood with his back towards her, adjusting his tie and the white rose boutonnière on his jacket in the mirror.

"What did you want to ask me?" he prompted politely, making eye contact with her reflection in the mirror.

His face glowed, making him appear far younger than he actually was, and every gesture spoke of eager anticipation. Rin fiddled with her hands. The sincerity in his words and eyes petrified her, and she prayed that what she was about to say would not ruin his happiness.

"Leon-san," she finally blurted out, "I feel like I need to tell you something. You see, my father…"

"Looked almost exactly like me?"

He said it with the same tone he might have used when prescribing a patient with an exercise routine or ordering a salad at a restaurant, and his calm expression remained unchanged.

Rin's mouth froze mid-sentence, and then she stammered, "You knew?"

"Your mother showed me his picture a month into our relationship." Breathing deeply, Leon straightened his jacket and turned to face Rin. "And I think my son may have told you that Neru-san closely resembles my ex-wife, Haku."

Dazed, Rin nodded mindlessly.

"Neru-san was actually the one to bring it up," he admitted, sitting down in a chair behind him so that he was more on Rin's eye level. "We talked about it, and although those similarities may have attracted us to each other initially, Neru-san's personality is so different from my ex-wife's that physical appearances became less and less important."

His voice rang with authenticity, and Rin found herself believing him.

His eyes connected with hers, and he said solemnly, "I love your mother because she is Neru-san, and I believe she feels the same way about me."

Rin had her doubts, but for the sake of their happiness, she smiled lightly in agreement. As she did this, she thought she heard Leon release a sigh of relief.

An idea came to mind, and Rin frowned and asked, "Have you told Len-san this?"

Leon's confident features faltered, and his mouth fumbled over a few words, "Yes, but I don't think he believes me."

Since she was unsure about the sincerity of her own mother's feelings, Rin could understand why Len would question his father's words.

"He'll come around," Rin assured Leon, and the man smiled a little.

The girl and groom turned at the sound of another knock on the door. A groomsman that Rin didn't recognize poked his head in the room.

"Rin-san, one of your mother's bridesmaids said Akita-san was looking for you."

Rin glanced from the groomsman to Leon, and she smiled apologetically, "I probably should go."

Leon nodded in agreement, but just before she left the room, he called after her, "If you ever need to talk about anything, anything at all, don't be afraid to ask."

Rin stuck her head back in the door and shot her almost-stepfather a bright grin.

"Same to you! We're family now."

He laughed as she sprinted to her mother's dressing room, and Rin's steps became lighter as her emotional burden was lifted slightly off her chest.

* * *

"Oh, Rinnie! I'm so glad they found you!" Her mother exclaimed, looking stunning in her satin white dress and laced veil.

"Is anything wrong?" Instinctively Rin began to scan her mother's hair, dress, and makeup to see if anything was amiss.

"No, today couldn't be more perfect! Well, except for my flowers." Neru glanced woefully towards the blooms resting on the dressing-room vanity. "I don't know what possessed the florist. Can you fix my bouquet for me?"

The flowers strewn on the vanity table caught Rin's wandering eyes. Like the first bouquet that Leon had given to Neru, the arrangement was filled with white Easter lilies. However, the florist had forgotten to remove the orange, pollinated anthers of the flowers. There were also ten lilies in the bouquet instead of a more eye-appealing multiple of three.

Rin clucked her tongue in disapproval, and asked one of her mother's friends if she could grab some toilet paper and a pair of scissors. The woman retrieved toilet paper from the bathroom, but the scissors were nowhere to be found. Rin made do with what she had, ridding the flowers of their orange pollen and dark green leaves. She moved to throw away the extra tenth flower, but her mother held Rin back before she could deposit the lily in the trashcan.

"That would be such a waste!" Neru explained, snatching up the flower and untying the large satin-ribbon headband in Rin's hair.

She teased her daughter's short locks, stripped the lily of its stalk, and tucked it behind Rin's right ear, sticking a pin in her hair to hold the flower in place.

"Why would you stick it in the trash? It looks so much better on you."

Rin giggled and then eyed her discarded satin bow. With skilled dexterity, she snatched up the ribbon and wrapped the stalks of the other nine flowers in the fabric, tying it up with a bow. She presented the newly arranged bouquet to Neru.

Her mother squealed in pleasure, "Rinnie! It's perfect!"

Before Rin could get away, her mother had smothered her in heavy satin fabric and a tight hug.

"Mom," Rin groaned, smiling despite her mother's suffocating affection, "you're going to wrinkle your dress."

"Don't care," her mother chortled, pulling back from her daughter with a contagious smile. "Today is me and Leon's special day. I can do whatever I want, and you have to spoil me."

Rin gave her mom an over exaggerated eye-roll and stuck out her lower lip. "Fine. As long as you take me shopping when you get back from your honeymoon."

"Deal." Neru gave her daughter a quick peck on the cheek, and Rin made a face.

"Neru-chan, it's time to go!" one of her bridesmaids called, and Neru shot up in surprise.

"Already? Rin, help me with my train."

Between the two of them, they scooped up the flowing bolts of fabric at the end of Neru's dress. Moving as quickly as two women carrying a heavy dress in high heels could manage, they made their way down the hallway to the entrance of the chapel. At that point, two of Neru's friends' daughters took charge of Neru's long train, leaving Rin and Neru's hands free.

At the doorway to the chapel, Neru gave her daughter's hand a hard but shaky squeeze, the only sign of fear or hesitation the woman had shown all day. Rin looked up at Neru and squeezed her hand in reply before she left to find Len, hoping to calm some of her mother's worries. Her mother's face lost some of its tightness, and she took her weight off of Rin to stand on her own two feet.

In a suit of soft gray, Kagamine Len was waiting in line at the entrance to the chapel to take Rin down the aisle. As she took her place next to him, Rin could feel Len's gaze turn to her, and though it was the last thing she wanted to do, Rin pulled her head up and stared him straight in the face.

Her blue eyes caught his and held him there. She wasn't going to walk to the altar with him until she was completely confident that this boy was going to support Neru when he took Rin's mother down the aisle. Len's eyes traced Rin's features as if he was reading a page of a book, and he gave a slight nod of his head.

Rin released a breath she hadn't realized she was holding. Len may have doubted his father's feelings, but he was not going to shun Neru because of his suspicions and his disapproval of his father's relationship. And despite Len's apparent dislike of Rin, he was not going to ruin his father's wedding day by antagonizing her.

She should have wondered why she could see all of this in a simple movement of Len's head, but she had no time to hesitate as the trumpet sounded, and the first bridesmaid and groomsman started down the aisle. When their turn came, Len extended his hand to Rin, reminding her of the day they first met, and he had refused to accept her handshake.

Rin hesitated for a moment. If she took Len's outstretched arm, she would be allowing this angry boy into her family. It would be a sign of her acceptance of the marriage, and she wasn't sure how she felt about that. Len's eyebrows furrowed, and he sighed in impatience, thrusting his hand in her face.

"Come on," he muttered. "Let's get this over with."

Hearing his comfortingly insistent words, Rin blinked herself back into reality, and wrapped her arm around his. For once, she was grateful for Len's brooding atmosphere. It made her feel less light-headed. While he refused to even crack a grin, she maintained a bright smile to make up for his stoniness.

Tension rolled off the two of them in waves, but Rin ignored it and concentrated on more important things, like getting to the altar without collapsing. Len and Rin's partnership was a tentative alliance shaking under a pressure that only they could feel. The weight of the electricity sparking between them was enormous, and Rin found herself needing air when they reached the end of the aisle. Len released Rin as she walked to the left of the altar, and he turned to retrieve Neru at the entrance to the chapel.

Without Len holding her up, Rin began to sway like a leaf. Her cheeks took on a green tint, and she bit her lip hard to keep herself from fainting. She wanted to either pass out and sleep through the whole awful experience or run straight out of the hotel and catch the metro to Teto's grandmother's place so that the Kasane's could officially adopt her and save her from this insanity.

However, all of her fear melted away as the wedding's trumpeter began to play, and the audience stood and turned to see the bride. The natural light of the chapel transformed Neru from a quaking woman into a blushing bride in all her glory. Golden notes pealed from the mouth of the trumpet, and Rin's head moved up to watch her mother's back straighten as she moved forward with purpose on Len's arm.

Unexpected tears pricked at Rin's eyes as she realized that their little family of two was gone. For the first time in Rin's life, Neru was going to a place where Rin could not follow her. That made Rin ecstatically happy for her mom and Leon, but at the same time, her shoulders slouched a little under the weight of the change.

Leading Neru up to the center of the altar, Len stopped to stand by his father. From the perspective of the crowd, the wedding guests saw two to-be stepsiblings, alike in looks and carriage, and a happy, good-looking couple standing around the priest. A picture-perfect new family.

As the wedding guests sat back down and the priest began the ceremony, Rin's nausea returned. Her head spun, and her empty stomach loudly complained. To keep herself from wobbling like a drunk, she clenched her fists and clutched her growling stomach. Why had she forgotten breakfast? She thought woefully. And wasn't it supposed to be the bride that got nervous, not her maid of honor?

A light chuckle interrupted her thoughts, and she turned just in time to see Len shaking in silent laughter. When he caught her looking at him, he shot her a smirk that was positively evil.

For a moment, fear struck a shiver up her spine, but then Rin's mouth dropped open. He was laughing at her. He had seen her lips loose their color and her face turn purple, and he thought the situation was funny! Her anger heated her cheeks and banished her fears. How dare he judge her!

To prove him wrong, she stood as straight as a rail, fists clenched, eyes focused on her mother. She would show him! Seeing her determination, Len gave a bright smile that he knew Rin wouldn't see.

While Leon and Neru continued to recite their vows, Rin stared stubbornly ahead, and Len tried his hardest not to burst out laughing.

At the proper moment, Leon's young nephew, Utatane Piko, shyly presented the bride and groom with their rings. Leon gently slipped a wedding band to his new wife's ring finger, and Neru shakily slid a platinum ring onto Leon's bigger hand. Her golden-brown eyes shone with unshed tears, and when the pastor prompted Leon to "kiss the bride," there was no hesitation.

Rin couldn't quite remember whether the wedding guests clapped or cheered in the end, but that wasn't important. All she cared about was the blissful delight washing over her as she watched her mother finally find happiness.

However, if Rin had just looked away from the newly wedded couple to catch her stepbrother's reaction to their parents' union, the unreadable expression on his face might have warned her. He was not going to accept Rin or her mother that easily.

* * *

The chapel was still and quiet without the wedding guests and merry clamor of celebration to fill its pews. Leon and Neru had proceeded out the door, down the elevator, and to the Penisula's Grand Ballroom fifteen minutes ago, and the hall was bare and deserted. One of the flower arrangements mounted along the aisle on the end of a row had begun shedding white petals onto the polished wooden ground. Only one guest remained.

Leaning against the back pew, an older man gazed thoughtfully towards the altar. His concentration was intense, and his gentle smile was natural, almost as if the bride and groom were still standing there and reciting their vows. Brushing a wrinkled hand through his steel-gray hair, he reached into his coat pocket for a pack of cigars. Without getting a light, he chewed a cigar between his teeth out of habit. He probably shouldn't have come.

While he mused, the wedding florist's assistant entered the room to remove the flowers and clean the area for the next ceremony, but she stopped and adjusted her glasses at the sight of the lone old man. She hastily tucked a strand of dark hair behind her ear and approached him with a smile of sympathy.

"Excuse me, ojiisan?" She assumed that senility or some other effect of aging had confused him. "If you would like to go to the wedding reception, I can take you to the Grand Ballroom."

He came out of his thoughts and looked her in the eye. His intelligence shone in his winning smile as he tucked his cigars back into his pocket.

"I would be honored to have such a lovely young lady escort me." He rose and took her arm. "Please, lead the way."

She giggled lightly at his flattery, and gladly showed the charming old man into a party that he hadn't been invited to.

* * *

A.N. Hm, who is that mysterious old man? XD Well, I know, but you guys will just have to wait until the next chapter to figure it out. Bwa ha ha. However, if anyone guesses it correctly, I'll give them a cookie, a flower, and dedicate chapter six to them. Put your guesses in your reviews!

I'm not sure about you all, but when I'm feeling emotional and need to be distracted, I have to go and do something. Rin arranges flowers; I write late into the night; Len plays his guitar. Teto has an awesome movie marathon. Meiko has a drinking marathon. XD I'm also fascinated by the simplest things. When I heard about siphon/vacuum coffeemakers being used in Japan, I just had to write about them. They're pretty cool! It's like anti-gravity coffee!

Flower Fun Fact: Easter lilies are white flowers with six curving petals and long, dark green leaves that grow from the base of their stalks. They were originally called "Teppouyuri" flowers and are native to Japan, but I wanted to use their more familiar western name in this story.

Language notes:

Len-san – calls Len "Len-san" because technically, they don't know each other that well. She addresses him that way not because she's timid or polite. It's more because she instinctively wants to put a social distance between them.

Shoji – (Wikipedia) a door, window or room divider consisting of translucent paper over a frame of wood which holds together a lattice of wood or bamboo.

Obaasan – grandmother

Megane – male characters who wear glasses

Oyaji – dad/old man (derogatory and improper)

Ojiisan – grandfather/respectful address of an older man

If you love the story, please remember to review! It inspires me to write more. Also, just to make things interesting, I'll post the next chapter when the review count gets past 60. :)


	6. So You Think You Can't Dance?

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing, except for Rin's dress. I have an old one just like it, sans the white sash around the waist. Oh, and the real Peninsula Hotel's Grand Ballroom doesn't have a balcony. I added it for a character that smokes.

**Dedication:** Either you all are unusually sharp, or I'm just not as smart as I thought I was. XD **xXx The Joker of a Writer xXx**, **DokiDokiKyuuChan**, **Higashino Ruuya**, **Campanella**, **kagamineevii**, **Bubblycutie and Awesomnessdude,** **Anonymous**, **kiwistarr**, **pohkeemawn**, and** xShanjix** get a red velvet cookie with white chocolate chips and a daisy of the color of their choice. As a special bonus for their wild theories, **Bubblycutie and Awesomnessdude **and **67rosary-bead42 **also get a large piece of conspiracy pie. It was interesting to me that Bubblycutie and 67rosary-bead42 both got the impression that the old man was Rin's father. Unfortunately, I do not have a cure for lung cancer or the power to resurrect people from the dead.

* * *

**Blondes Are for the Birds**

**Chapter Six: So You Think You Can't Dance?**

* * *

For the bartender at Neru and Leon's wedding reception, it had already been a hell of a night. He adjusted his glasses on his nose and swept his dark hair off of his forehead out of habit to look down on the source of his torment. Free booze seemed to attract the strangest kinds of drinkers to weddings, and although he was used to dealing with drunks, this customer was one of a kind.

It was only an hour into the party, and this brunette woman had finished a bottle of sake, a shot of whisky, a glass of shochu on the rocks, and two "red-eyes," half-beer, half tomato juice. Now, she stared listlessly off into space, blood-shot burgundy eyes fixated on the rows of shiny bottles behind him. Painstakingly cleaning a used martini glass with a white dishrag, he patiently waited for his all-too willing customer to select a new beverage.

"Hm, shochu on the rocks, or shochu with tomato juice?" the woman mumbled to herself as she leaned heavily on the bar countertop. "Or maybe just straight shochu."

Shochu was her drink of choice because the earthy taste and 20-40% alcohol content of the Japanese distilled spirit appealed to her at the moment. To get a better look at the selection of drinks, she pulled herself forward and propped her chest on the counter top, pressing her ample cleavage into an even more provocative shape in the low v-neck of her black dress. The bartender's eyebrows rose over his black-rimmed glasses. He cleared his throat.

"I'd suggest a shochu cocktail," he said with a tone of authority. Noticing her reddening nose and cheeks, he added under his breath, "Less alcohol in it."

"What kinds do you have?"

"Well, there's my personal favorite for customers like yourself: a cocktail with slices of lime, a little vodka, a little shochu, and enough sparkling water and shaved ice to…tone it down a bit."

"If that's all you got, then I'll just take a shot of hanazake."

The bartender involuntarily flinched at her request for "hanazake." The strong alcoholic beverage had once been used for religious ceremonies and could only be consumed in small doses because of its high 60% alcohol content. He dreaded to think of what havoc this woman would wreak with the blazing firewater in her system.

"I'm not giving that to you straight, miss."

"My name is Meiko," she insisted. "So call me Meiko."

"Well then, Meiko-san, how about some chuhai?" he pulled out a can of the drink for her to see. "We have grapefruit, lemon, lime, ume, peach, and mikan flavors."

"Naw. Too weak." She waved an unsteady hand in front of her face. "Weak booze isn't worth the time it takes to drink it. I like drinks that get to my bloodstream like," Meiko snapped her fingers, "that."

"This is your sixth drink, Meiko-san. I'm sure there's plenty of alcohol in your system."

"Pwa, I can take ten times more than this," she boasted. Seeing his obvious disapproval, she insisted, "Sure, sure, I took some medical courses in college. I know how bad it is for me. Ruining my liver and whatnot, so I don't need you to scold me." Smiling playfully, she asked him, "Wanna see how many shots of hanazake it takes to get me under the table?"

"No, Meiko-san, I'd rather not."

"Ooo, don't be angry, megane-san." She pretended to pout. "A frown just ruins your good looks." With a precise movement that would have been impossible for the average drunk, she snatched his glasses off of his face. "And I like you better without the specs."

Kiyoteru calmly pried his glasses from her loose fingers and put them back on. "Flattery is not going to get you any hanazake."

"Will it get me your number, megane-san?"

"Will you remember it if I tell it to you?"

She considered this for a drunken moment. "Meh. Probably not."

"Exactly. Do me a favor, Meiko-san, and take my advice: I highly, highly suggest chuhai. In fact, I won't give you any other drink."

"Okay, okay, I get the message." She rolled her eyes and reluctantly requested, "Grapefruit flavor, please."

He smoothly handed her the canned beverage and a glass of ice, and Meiko turned to saunter away from the bar, knowing that she had worn out her welcome.

Popping open the can and pouring her pink drink over the crackling glass of ice, she woefully muttered to herself, "Guess it's better than nothing." Meiko had a gut feeling that Neru had hired that stickler of a bartender with her alcoholic friend in mind.

The brunette sat herself down at an empty table to drink her grapefruit chuhai alone. Unfortunately, as soon as Meiko made herself comfortable, two women decided to start a high-pitched conversation at the table behind her. Meiko's alcohol-weakened ears cringed under the noise, and she tried to block out their chatter by taking deep gulps of her drink. The chuhai's 5% alcohol content was not enough to drown out their words completely. From what Meiko could catch, a middle-aged woman in a cream dress was describing her impression of the bride to the interior decorator across from her.

"…I worked with Neru-san for three years before you did, and it seemed like every other month, she had a new boyfriend. Well, until this guy came along." The middle-aged woman gestured towards Leon suggestively, and her younger coworker glanced in his direction with a raised eyebrow.

Meiko snorted through a sip of her drink. She recognized jealousy when she heard it, and the older decorator's nasally tone was dripping with envy and antipathy.

Turning away from the groom, the older decorator's associate shrugged her shoulders and timidly noted, "I suppose that's good for Akita-san. She's in a steady relationship."

"Yes," the old woman drawled, "but her tastes are questionable."

"Tastes?" The younger decorator used polite language, but her respectful tone could not entirely conceal her growing interest in what her coworker was saying.

At this point, Meiko also began to listen in.

Neru's older coworker leaned closer to her listener and announced in a loud whisper, "All of her boyfriends looked alike. From what I could tell, she exclusively dated men with blonde hair."

The young woman's eyes widened. "Really."

With her audience hooked, the old gossip continued excitedly, "You know, she used to have a picture of her late husband on her desk. He was an attractive, blonde, blue-eyed man."

Her younger colleague gasped, "Are you suggesting..."

"I mean, I'm in no place to judge." Neru's senior associate knowingly waved her ring-laden hand from side to side. "I haven't been in a serious relationship since I divorced my second husband, but I certainly don't date men that look like him or my first husband."

"That is very odd," her junior coworker admitted, "and Kagamine-san does seem to fit her, um, 'mold'."

"Not only that, his son does as well!" The old decorator spoke with conviction and authority as she stated more ludicrous facts to back up her argument. "It's like she's trying to create her own perfect gene pool, like those awful racists you hear about from WWII European history. The Nazi's thought the Aryan race was the supreme form of mankind, with pale skin, blonde hair…"

Meiko didn't want to hear another word of this lunacy. The svelte brunette rose to her feet. Pretending to stagger as she walked, Meiko passed right in front of Neru's gossiping coworkers. As she made her way by them, her dark-colored drink "accidentally" slipped through her fingers, dumping grapefruit-colored liquid and ice over their hair and clothes.

"Aieee!"

"Oh! My dress!"

Covered in the purple-pink drink, the two women squawked and screeched like angry chickens.

"Ooooh, oops," Meiko slurred, a drunken grin spreading across her face, "I guess I'm clumsy when I'm tipsy."

Makeup smeared, the two decorator's mouths fell open in utter shock. After defending Neru's honor, Meiko strutted away in triumph. Neru's bedraggled associates just stared after the brunette, completely speechless.

Before she moved completely out of sight, Meiko turned back to her victims as if she had forgotten something and added, "But you know, I think your outfits look better this way."

Meiko left them before they had time to figure out whether or not they had been insulted.

Having completed her good deed of the day, Meiko eyed her empty glass. "Hm, might have to get another one…" she observed, and then swaggered off to find her friend and adopted niece.

* * *

Cheese squares and shish kebabs, shining fruits and pieces of cake along with countless other delicacies littered the buffet table. Finger pressed against her chin, Rin reviewed her options, and then began piling different samples of delicious food onto her clear plastic plate. Loot in hand, the teen plopped herself down in the nearest available seat and took a bite of the groom's dark chocolate cake. After an hour of reception activities and obligations, she was completely famished and her head spun from the lack of food.

For the first half hour, Neru, Leon, Rin, Len, and Lola's family had stood in a "line of reception" inside of the entrance to the Grand Ballroom to greet wedding attendees as they came inside. Guests would slowly make their way down the "handshake assembly line," as Rin liked to think of it, greeting and meeting the married couple and their family. Only a few people hadn't bothered to stop to say hello. As was typical for her, Meiko ignored her friend and niece and made a beeline for the open bar. Rin had also noticed the florist's assistant escort an older man into the party out of the corner of her eye, and wondered if the oujisan was some relation of Len's. They somehow looked alike. As soon as she considered pursuing him and introducing herself, another guest had taken her hand into a tight handshake.

When all the guests had arrived, Neru and Leon started performing the usual western traditions. They fed each other the first bites of their wedding cake and lifted a toast of champagne to their partner's lips with their arms crossed one over the other. Neru had nearly dumped the entire glass in Leon's face on accident, but a quick dodge on his part had saved his grey suit. The two of them had laughed and laughed.

After that, the party began to swing into gear, and Rin used the massing crowd as cover to escape from social obligations and get some much-needed sustenance. The majority of guests had finished perusing the buffet, and the maid of honor ended up eating by herself with only used glasses and discarded napkins for company. However, Rin soon found that it was impossible to munch on her late lunch in peace in the midst of the party.

Friends and guests would intermittently stop to chat with the bride's daughter, whether Rin knew them or not. It seemed like every time she took a big bite of cake or stuck a huge grape in her mouth, someone would pop by to say hello. Too embarrassed to talk around her food, Rin would chew for a second or two, and each conversation would start with a long, awkward silence.

Feeling tired and antisocial, Rin retreated again, this time to a secluded terrace outside of the Grand Ballroom. In contrast to the modern interior, the balcony was crafted of grey stone and looked out into the green span of the Imperial Palace Gardens.

Setting her half-empty plate on one of the wrought iron tables, Rin ran to the edge of the space and propped her elbows up on the terrace's balustrade. In the upper layers of the atmosphere of Tokyo, a cool breeze was blowing. The maid of honor blissfully lifted her face to take a deep breath of the crisp air, but then the wind changed direction. A puff of smoke flew into Rin's mouth and eyes, with a chalky, acidic consistency that burned her cornea. She coughed violently, and turned towards the source of the pollution.

An older man dressed in a black suit, dark grey dress shirt, and black bow-tie was sitting on the other end of the balcony. His white teeth firmly held a thick brown cylinder at an angle in the corner of his mouth. The burning end of the old-timey cigar slowly released smoky plumes, leaving a hazy stream of exhaust. The elderly man never inhaled the smoke; he just simply sat and chewed softly on his roll of tobacco, staring off into the distance. Rin recognized him as the stranger who had come to the party with the assistant florist.

He hadn't seemed to notice Rin yet, so she quietly retrieved her plate of food and shuffled over to the table where he sat.

"Hello."

He paused and removed the lighted cigar from his mouth, tapping some of the ashes off of its tip into a plastic cigarette tray in the center of the table.

"I don't believe I got the chance to introduce myself when you came in." Rin stuck out her hand. "I'm Akita Rin, the bride's daughter."

Before he accepted her handshake, the older gentleman methodically placed his cigar back into the corner of his mouth. When he did take Rin's hand, his palms had deep wrinkles written across them and felt slightly cold.

"You can call me Dell-san. Or ojisan. Whichever you prefer," he drawled around the tobacco on his tongue.

"Dell-san is fine," Rin answered, assuming that it was his surname. "Um, just out of curiosity, does your name have anything to do with the foreign computer company?"

Dell peered at the girl over his cigar, and then heartily guffawed.

"Ah, no," he laughed, coughing as he choked on some cigar smoke, "That company began a few years too late to be named after me! I was a practicing attorney in Tokyo before I retired."

"Oh," Rin sighed, realizing her blunder.

He smiled at her thoughtfully. "I can understand your confusion. It's an unusual name."

"No. Somehow, it fits you," Rin said.

"Well, I'm glad you think so." Her older companion took out his cigar and skillfully blew a cheerio-shaped circle of smoke into the air. "You're Akita Neru's daughter?"

"Yes."

"She's a very beautiful woman. You must be proud to be her daughter."

"Yes," the girl nodded. "But sometimes I worry about her. She thinks too quickly about others and forgets about herself."

Once her words had slipped out of her mouth, Rin wondered if the old man would disapprove her lack of respect when describing her mother, but he only chuckled to himself.

"Are you sure you are not that way as well?"

"Hm, me?" Rin pointed questioningly to herself.

Instead of answering her question, he folded his hands together and leaned back in his chair. "I came here because I know Leon and his son, Len."

Rin wondered why Dell had not used any honorifics when referring to the Kagamines, but he began speaking again before she could think too deeply about it.

"Leon may have the same trouble as you and Neru-san, but I believe his son struggles with a very different problem." The old man's wrinkled brow furrowed drastically as he confessed his reservations. "He thinks too often of himself and things that should be forgotten. As his…father's family friend, I feel reason to be concerned."

His younger listener "hmed" sympathetically and bit her lower lip. "Have you told Leon-san this?"

"No. We have not seen each other in a long time, and I don't believe that we will meet anytime soon."

This made absolutely no sense to Rin, but she was unsure whether it was her place to question him about the matter or not. However, because Dell seemed so disturbed and anxious about the situation, Rin attempted to console him.

"My kaachan is a firm believer in people and in the ability of people to change. I'm not as trusting as her, but I do think that if someone is determined to improve their life, change can happen."

Rin had seen this evidence of this everyday miracle through her mother. Even though Rin had been convinced that Neru's grief for her husband would continue to rule her mother's life, Neru had climbed back out of her pit of despair for the sake of someone she loved, her daughter.

"I know you care about Len-san very much, but how each person lives their life is their decision to make."

When Dell said nothing for a few long moments, Rin worried that she had offended him in some way. Then, his face lifted into a partial smile, his aging eyes shining with something that almost seemed like admiration.

"It impresses me when the younger generation can remind old men like myself of truths we've too easily forgotten." Looking at Rin, his halfway smile stretched into a full grin, exposing his smoke-stained teeth. Rin smiled in return.

Pushing himself gradually upward, Dell got himself out of his chair, leaving his cigar in the ashtray and reaching into his jacket pocket. He withdrew a small business card, which he handed to Neru's daughter.

"As I said, Leon-san and I will not be seeing each other, so I should go before I'm noticed." He picked up a cane propped against the chair that Rin hadn't noticed initially and leaned heavily against it as she read the card he had given her. "I hope it's not too presumptuous of me, but I'm giving you my business card so that you can deliver it to my…to Len. Tell him that if my daughter returns, or if he should ever need anything, my house is his." Rin nodded, and the crow's feet around Dell's eyes crinkled. "You are welcome in my home as well."

"Thank you," she replied haltingly, rereading the contents of his business card.

When she suddenly understood what she held in front of her eyes, Rin could hardly believe what she was reading. The words on it indicated that Dell was a lawyer and listed his contact information and address, but there was one piece of information that she couldn't comprehend. His last name was not Dell, it was…

"Excuse me, Dell-san, but are you…" but as soon as she wrenched her gaze from the paper, the old man had gone. Rin murmured to herself, "Honne. Honne Dell?"

Rin could distinctly recall her mother mentioning that Haku-san, Len's mother, had used the last name "Yowane" as a model, but her real maiden name was Honne.

She highly doubted that Dell was an uncle or distant relative of Haku's, because why would someone attend a distant relation's ex-husband's wedding? That only left one possibility.

Rin had just met Len's grandfather.

The business card Dell had given Rin was now a dangerous burden. If she passed it on to Len like Dell had asked or talked to Leon about it, she had no idea how they would react. But she couldn't just throw it away! Rin usually trusted Neru with these sorts of sensitive matters, but in this case, she didn't feel like she could discuss the issue with her mother.

Thinking about the dilemma for a moment, Rin decided to keep her rendezvous with Len's grandfather a secret. Until the time came when the information that Dell had shared with her would be of use, she would keep her mouth sealed about the matter. She tucked the card into the sash of her dress, planning to stick it into her purse once she went back into the party, and began munching on her second piece of wedding cake.

As soon as Rin started digging into her food again, a pair of arms with golden bangles jingling on their wrists snaked around her neck.

"Who's my favorite fake niece?" the person behind Rin snickered.

"And who's my favorite drunk?" Rin replied with heavy sarcasm.

"Aw, Rinnie, don't flatter your old obasan. You'll make me blush."

Between the time Meiko had left the bar to look for Rin and the point at which she actually found her niece, Meiko had swindled some pliable male guests into snagging drinks for her and had become significantly more inebriated.

Swiveling around in Meiko's tight embrace, Rin gazed up at her adopted aunt. "Your face is already red in the first place."

"Details, details." Meiko pulled out a chair and plopped down beside Rin. "The booze was good, so I was willing to deal with the side effects. And it was good. Really good booze. I'm going to have an awesome hangover tomoooooorrow!"

Rin groaned.

"So," her aunt folded her arms across her well-endowed chest, "now that you've had your snack and you're not all pale and sick-looking, ready to have some fun?"

"Your kind of fun? As in drinking until you can't see straight?" That was not Rin's definition of a 'good time.' "I'm underage, so nope. Sorry Meiko-oba, I'll pass."

"Rin-Rin, when have I ever offered you alcohol?" Meiko whined defensively. "I've done many things, but I do not corrupt small children."

"Then what kind of things _have_ you done?"

Rin waited for an answer, but Meiko began whistling the Doraemon theme song off-tune and pointing at random clouds to avoid the question.

"That one looks like a perverted old man!"

"Whatever," Rin grunted with a frown, "ignore me. But let me get one thing straight: I'm not small! I'm a nice 5'4" medium-sized young lady."

"Well, no offense Rin-chan, but as far as boobs go, yours…"

"Don't make me feel more insecure!" Rin's voice cracked as it rose in pitch and volume. "A B-cup is totally normal for someone my age. Yours are just abnormally huge!"

"Huh? You're a B-cup now? I could swear your mother said you were an A…"

"I grew!"

"Oh." Meiko blinked, and then bounced up to strangle Rin in her signature bone-crushing hug. "I'm so proud of you! Let's throw a party!"

Rin loved Meiko, but right now, she felt like she was going to die of anger, embarrassment, and suffocation. However, Lola chose this very opportune time to walk through the balcony doors with a sugar-crazed child hanging off of each arm.

"Oh, Rin-san!" Lola called, seeing her new niece being tackled by Neru's friend.

Rin quickly disentangled herself from Meiko and stood up to greet Leon's sister.

"Lola-san! Are you having a good time at the party?"

"Yes, but…" she apologetically glanced towards the sources of her distress, "Piko and Lily are all sugared up from the cake, and they're bouncing off the walls. I really wanted to talk to some of my old college friends, but I can't leave them without supervision when they're like this. Do you think you could watch them for a bit?"

"Sure!" Babysitting Piko and Lily would give Rin the opportunity to escape from Meiko's loving abuse, and plus, Rin loved kids.

"Thank you so much! You're doing me the biggest favor."

"It's really no problem." Feeling slightly guilty about leaving Meiko to her own devices, Rin whispered to her step-aunt, "I'm sure you've already met her during our limo ride this morning, but do you think you could find a good place inside for Meiko-oba to sit down before you talk to your friends? If you let my mom know that she's a little… out of sorts, Mom will find a bridesmaid to take care of her."

"Oh, that's perfectly fine. It's the least I can do for you," Lola smirked to herself and set her hand on her hip. "Haigou-san was in a nursing class with me in college before I decided to become a plastic surgeon. We weren't close, but I know a little of what she is like."

"Oh, good."

Then Rin turned her attention to the two little tykes Lola had put into her care. "Hello! Your mama said that she wanted me to take care of you two while she's busy, so are you ready to have some fun?"

Lily pouted, but her younger brother Piko nodded softly, "Yes, Rin-neechan."

Rin beamed. They were both so cute!

"Okay! Follow me, then."

She took their smaller hands in hers, and they skipped together towards the Grand Ballroom dance floor.

* * *

Bored as hell, Len chewed a mint-flavored toothpick between his teeth and pretended to listen to the conversation between his father and an old family friend. Even though he wasn't aware of it, as he brooded, Len appeared very much like his mother's father. Dell and Len's posture and the manner in which they leaned heavily back in their chairs and still maintained a debonair appearance was exactly alike. If Len's wooden toothpick had been exchanged for a smoking cigar, he would have been the spitting image of the grandfather he had never known.

Dell's grandson blew his bangs out of his face distastefully as another female guest shamelessly pointed him out to her chattering friends. Usually, this would have flattered him, and he might have taken advantage of the situation, but besides Akita Rin and maybe Lily, there was not one woman in the room younger than 30. Well, except for a waitress that had a bug-sized mole on her forehead. Len smirked at the thought. There was no pride in picking up old hags, and yet Len seemed to attract them like flies at events like this.

"Len-san, Leon-san said that you would be starting high school soon."

The pointed comment from the old man talking to Leon forced Len to reengage.

"In a week," Len curtly replied.

"What school?"

"Yonezu High."

"Ah, good, good," the aging doctor nodded in approval. "I've heard only positive reviews of that academy. A friend of mine has two grandsons that go there. Do you know anyone with the last name Shion?

"No sir. I went to a secondary school outside of Tokyo, so I probably won't know anyone except for my stepsister."

"Well, I'm sure you'll meet them eventually. They're both fine boys. Kaito-san should be two years older than you, and his cousin Akaito-san is a year above you."

"You should look for them when you get to school," Leon suggested. "It'll be good to have some friends."

Friends that didn't party and chase girls. Friends that weren't delinquents. Friends his father would approve of. Len hadn't been a particularly bad kid until his second year of middle school, so Leon tended to believe that the change in behavior was because of the negative influence of other people. Leon liked to think the best of his son and the worst of Len's friends.

Not wanting to verbally agree with his father, Len silently nodded his head, and Leon and the doctor went back to their previous conversation. Left alone to think, Len turned his head away from the two men and stared blankly into space. If only there was someone his age for him to talk to. Anyone.

A twirling flash of yellow drew his wandering eye to the dance floor in the middle of the room. His two baby cousins were spinning around with one of the bridesmaids, and Len secretly wished that he was enjoying himself half as much as they were. The typically petulant Lily had the biggest smile on her face, and quiet Piko was screaming with laughter.

Wondering who could have brought about such a change in his cousins, Len took a closer look at the bridesmaid. He couldn't see her hair color at first, since she had her back to him and Piko was on her shoulders, blocking Len's view, but her legs were long, her waistline slim, and her feet were as light as a dancer's. She couldn't have been older than eighteen, but Len couldn't remember seeing someone so young in the wedding ceremony.

While she bounced Piko up and down on her back, she was teaching Lily a dance move Len didn't recognize with her feet. The little group was constantly hopping and jumping around, but the older girl didn't seem to tire in the slightest. The only sign of weakness she displayed was when she knelt to the ground and told Piko to climb off of her back. However, as soon as Piko slipped gently to the ground, she joined hands with the siblings to start another dancing game.

They began running around in a circle, moving completely off-beat from the music the reception's band was playing, and loudly singing a song in English. Len identified the tune as a nursery rhyme he had learned when he had lived in America before his parents had separated.

"Ring-around-the-rosy…"

Their faces blurred as they spun.

"A pocket full of posies…"

They stopped for half a second, just long enough for Len to get a good look at her face. His chest constricted.

"Ashes, ashes, we all fall down!"

They collapsed dramatically onto the dance floor. Len resisted the urge to blink and roughly rub his eyes to check if he was seeing things. Could it be...? He shook his head. But that was impossible. The girl he had come to know never laughed so joyously or smiled so openly. At least, she didn't around him.

"Again, again!" Lily begged.

Lily and Piko's babysitter stood up onto her feet and brushed off her skirt. These kind of energy-taxing activities were tiring, but it was worth doing them just to see the grins on their little faces.

"Alright," she agreed with a smile, and Piko and Lily cheered.

She stretched out her arms to take their hands again, but feeling a heavy presence focused on her back, Rin looked up to find Len staring straight at her.

It was hard to define what went between them in those few breathless seconds, but it made Rin's stomach drop and Len's heart rate quicken. As if they had both plunged down the track of a rollercoaster.

The tension broke when Len hastily turned his head away. His mind was reeling and he couldn't understand why.

Rin recovered when Lily pulled on her skirt and brought her back into awareness. Forgetting Len, she bent down to sweep Lily off her feet, spinning the little girl in her arms through the air.

But Len remained shell-shocked for some time afterwards. Something so strong, sudden, and out of control rushing through his system scared him shitless. However, in his whirling thoughts, his fear evolved into confusion, which ended in frustration, and resulted in a senseless anger that helped him convince himself that the rampant emotion from before had simply been hatred.

By the time Lola came to retrieve her children, and Rin pulled up a chair between Leon and his son, everything was virtually how it had been before. Rin didn't understand Len. Len didn't understand himself. They loathed each other. That was all there was to it. At least, that's what Len kept telling himself.

His stepsister chatted amiably with his father until Leon left the table. Then she turned her raised eyebrow towards her stepbrother.

"What were you staring at me for?"

"Hm?" He childishly pretended to mishear her, lazily moving his eyes to connect with hers.

"Don't pretend that you weren't. I saw you." Her mouth thinned. "Did I rip my skirt, or do I have something on my face?"

Len found her inaccurate conclusions amusing, but even if he had wanted to give her a reply, he didn't have a proper answer to her question. How could he explain the reason if he couldn't understand the situation himself?

So out of gut reflex, he thought up the nastiest possible thing he could say.

"I don't know." He shrugged his broad shoulders. "I guess I was surprised that you could relate to kids so well."

Rin had expected something worse and was surprised by his complementary sounding statement. Then Len casually ran his eyes over her frame. The way he glanced up and down her body reminded Rin of the way he had looked at her the day they first met, and the hairs on the back of her neck rose.

As warning signals blared in Rin's brain, Len's face stretched into a malicious smirk. "But that's probably just because you're a flat-chested brat."

Rin should have known a complement was too much to hope for. Seriously, why did people keep insulting her breasts today? Instinctively, she wanted to yell back at him, "I'm a nice and average B-cup, thankyouverymuch! This dress just flattens me out!" But then again, declaring her chest size to her evil stepbrother would probably only make the situation worse. Trembling with rage, she bit the inside of her cheek and held herself back.

Enjoying Rin's silent anger, Len's sneer grew wider. Her face became even redder as a result.

He snickered, and as he got up to leave the table, he stopped to lean in and whisper to his stepsister, "Once a daddy's girl, always a daddy's girl."

Then he walked away.

At that, Rin blew a gasket. She was going to murder that bastard!

"I shouldn't have to take that sort of crap from a mama's boy like you!"

Len flinched at Rin's words, but continued forward as if he hadn't heard her.

Rin bristled. She was so not going to let him get away from this unscathed. Shoving her chair out of her way, she caught up with Len and stopped directly in front of him. Almost at his eyelevel in her high heels, she held her nose inches from his as her cheeks flushed and her nostrils flared in unattractive fury.

"I'm a daddy's girl, huh?" she spat, getting even closer to him by standing on her tiptoes. "I dare you to say that again. To my face."

For a moment or two, Len legitimately feared for his life. But when his mind hummed back into gear, the first thought that came to mind spilled out of his mouth.

"Back off, idiot. You're so close I can see your nose hairs."

Rin shot back and clapped her hands to her face with a squeak. "That's not the kind of thing you say to a lady!"

"I don't think you're what people would call 'a lady.'"

"Oooo…"

"Len, Rin?"

Their blonde heads jerked to the side. Len's aunt was waving them down.

"Come on!" Lola hollered. "It's time for the first dance! Leon and Neru-san are waiting for you!"

The teens' faces went completely blank. Fate couldn't have picked worse timing. Since Leon's parents had passed away, and Neru was estranged from her family, Len and Rin would have to waltz together in place of the groom's mother and the bride's father after Leon and Neru's "first dance." After that, they would separate and dance with each other's parents. Rin had completely forgotten about it.

"Shit." Len's eyes widened, and he watched to see how Rin reacted. "Now?"

A minute ago, Rin had looked like she wanted to strangle him. Now she just seemed tired and frazzled.

"Ugh. I guess we don't have a choice," she mumbled half to herself, half to Len. Her hand shot out and grabbed his wrist to make sure he couldn't run away, and she towed him to the dance floor.

When they arrived, Rin dropped Len's hand like a dirty kleenex. The song Neru had picked out for her waltz with Leon was nearly complete. The last few notes faded away, and Rin turned to face her waltzing partner.

"Let's go!" she said using a falsely cheery tone of voice, trying to convince Len to work with her for once.

Len just stood there without moving, and the next song began to play. He couldn't decide which side of Rin scared him more: her anger or her fake smile.

In their own world, Neru and Leon began swaying to the new music, unaware that their son and daughter had missed their cue.

Rin huffed impatiently. "Come on, just dance with me already!" The focus of the audience was still on the wedded couple, but if Len and Rin didn't move fast, the guests would sense that something was up.

"One problem."

Rin's hands moved to her hips. "What now?" she groaned.

Shuffling his feet, her stepbrother muttered something incoherent to the floor.

"Don't mumble. I can't hear a thing you're saying."

Eyebrows drawn in frustration, he repeated himself, "I don't know how to waltz."

Rin stared at him in horror. Was Len planning to humiliate them both?

"If you had come to the dancing lesson with your dad, you would have learned how!"

"That's not what I need to hear right now," he growled, moving closer to his stepsister. "I'm asking _you_ to show me how."

Len lifted his hands palm-up towards her. Rin glanced from his fingers to his face with a bitter smile.

"Really? The great Len-sama asking a 'flat-chested brat' for advice? I thought that sort of thing was beneath you."

"Do you want to dance or not?"

"I'd rather eat a worm," she confessed, "but do we have a choice?"

Len's eyes connected with hers. Then he slowly shook his head from side to side.

Rin sighed, "Take my hand."

He did, and she drew him out into the center of the dance floor and began pulling his arms and body into position.

"Don't put your hand on my lower back," she corrected him. "That's not where it's supposed to be."

Annoyed at the way she was bossing him, Len suggestively asked, "Lower then?"

His hand grazed her butt.

"Ack!" His partner jumped at the physical contact.

Len silently laughed at her violent reaction, and steam started pouring out of Rin's ears.

She grit her teeth and hissed, "Shoulder blade. On the _shoulder _blade."

Twisting her arm into a contorted position, Rin yanked his hand off of her butt and forced it onto her upper back. "And make sure it stays there," she muttered.

"Or what?"

Rin lifted her right foot threateningly. "I'll stick my two-inch heel right where it would hurt the most."

"And where's that?"

"Toes, shin, or groin. Take your pick, jerk."

"Geeze. Didn't think I'd get such a violent stepsister."

"Just shut up so I can teach you how to waltz."

With her right hand in his left hand, his right hand on her left shoulder blade, and their elbows slightly bent, Rin began to walk Len through the basic steps of the waltz at a beat twice as slow as the actual music.

"One, two, three. One, two…straighten up a little."

Len raised his head to improve his posture, but the minute his eyes left his feet, he accidentally collided into Rin.

"Ouch!" she winced, "Don't step on my toes!"

He mumbled something might have been "Sorry," but his voice was low, and Rin didn't bother to ask him to repeat himself. However, after that, he had a better awareness of her movements, and his dancing steadily improved.

"Okay, better now. One, two, together."

As their tempo increased and they began waltzing across the dance floor instead of simply shuffling from side to side, Rin started to enjoy herself. For the rest of the song they glided along without any problems, and by the end of their dance, it was Len, not Rin, who had taken the lead.

When the last notes of the song drifted away through the air, Rin was beaming with pride.

"I feel pretty accomplished. I taught a person how to waltz in under four minutes."

"That was because of my natural skill. Your teaching sucks."

She shrugged her shoulders. "It takes two to tango."

"You mean, waltz?"

Len's jab poked a hole in Rin's bubble, and her happy balloon of self-accomplishment deflated a little. She scowled up at him. "You know what I meant. Don't correct me."

They continued to bicker back and forth, until the faint sound of snickering interrupted their banter. Rin and Len looked over to see their parents trying and failing to hide their laughter.

"What's so funny?" Len demanded.

Neru burst into another fit of giggles, and Leon barely managed to compose himself enough to say, "Well, I was wondering if I could borrow your partner for the next dance. Unless you'd like to keep her for a little longer…"

The two teenagers stared incomprehensively at their crazy parents. Then they turned back to each other. Even without the music, Len and Rin had stayed closely together in waltzing position while they argued. Len sharply withdrew his arm from Rin's waist, and they moved away from each other like repelling magnets.

"Aw, Leon, you shouldn't have said anything! I could have gotten the photographer to take a picture…"

Rin moaned, "Mom!"

Leon and Neru allowed themselves a few more chuckles, and then paired off with their new stepchildren to finish the last waltz. Dancing with Leon was awkward at first, but after Rin asked him about his job, they transitioned into a meaningful conversation about the medical practice of physical therapy, what Leon's patients were like, and what had inspired him to become a physical therapist. The discomfort between them quickly melted away.

Once they all finished dancing, and the audience clapped and cheered, the rest of the party soon became a hazy blur in Rin's consciousness. She danced to Neru's favorite music, laughed when Meiko dragged Neru into the middle of the crowd and the two friends had a dance off, and basked in the glow of Neru's happiness as the mother and daughter celebrated the start of their new life.

However, Rin knew that all good things eventually came to a close. Neru pulled her new husband over to look at his wristwatch and gasped when she saw they had barely any time to catch their flight. Rin rushed her mother off to the bathroom and threw Neru a duffle full of clothes for her to change into.

When Neru returned, the happily married couple rushed out of the hotel's revolving front door. The attending guests were waiting for them outside and blew bubbles in the bride and groom's faces.

Neru paused at the top of the stairs to throw her bouquet of Easter lilies to a squealing group of her friends (it hit Meiko in the head on accident), and then tossed a piece of paper Frisbee-style to her daughter.

"I'm off to Lanai, Hawaii!" the bride hollered from the taxicab, and the whole crowd cheered. Leon and Neru waved, then the groom closed the cab door behind them, and they were off to the airport.

Rin waved until they disappeared around a street corner and shifted her attention to the slip of paper in her hands. It was a crisp, cream-colored envelop addressed "To My Daughter and Stepson" and "From Neru" with a hasty scribble on the back of it. "Note: Please be sure and read this together! It has important information for you both."

Frowning at her mother's loopy handwriting, Rin made her way through the bustling crowd, looking for Len's head of sunny blonde hair. She found him on a couch in the lobby, texting on his cell phone. Len's stepsister plopped down beside him and wordlessly stuck the letter in his face. Reluctantly putting his phone away, Len pried open the envelope and held the note up for Rin to see. Together, they read the contents of the letter.

_Dear Rinnie and Len-kun,_

_Leon and I are so excited that we're all a family now! The two of us will have a fabulous time in Lanai, but we will certainly miss you both! We can't wait to begin living together, and I'm sure that our future together will be bright. You both are such wonderful people already, and your lives have just barely begun! _

_Rin, I am so proud to be a mother of such a beautiful, smart daughter! I will always be there to support you, especially in your coming days of high school._

_Len, I hope you will come to consider me your friend. I will work hard to earn your trust and respect!_

_Well, now that I've gotten through all the mushy stuff, let's get down to business. Although I'd trust Rin with my life, my bank account, and my sanity, I don't feel great about leaving her all by herself while Leon and I honeymoon. I was planning on having her go to Kasane Teto's house, but since her grandmother is sick, dear Teto-chan will be out of town. Rin, I'm sorry honey, but even though you are an extremely responsible young lady, living alone in our house for a week is just not going to work. I thought about it for quite a while, and I narrowed the possible solutions to the problem down to two options:_

_1. Rin can stay with her Meiko-oba. _

_2. Or she can stay at Len-kun and Leon's apartment. _

_Take your pick. I'd rather Rin stay at the boys' place because we are going to move there anyways and live there temporarily until Leon can find a place closer to his job, but I'm sure Meiko would love to have you over! Well, if she's sober. In any case, have oodles of fun while we're gone, and be sure and call me for any updates! _

_XOXXO with lots of love,_

_Neru_

_P.S. I gave this letter to you now because I didn't want to give you both enough time to say anything to me about this. My decision is final. If you stay together, don't fight, be nice, and try your best to get along! And Rin, don't you dare try to stay at home alone! I'm going to have Meiko-oba check on you two, and if you haven't done what I told you to do or you're being nasty to each other, there will be consequences. Plus, you don't want to be in a bad mood on my honeymoon, right? Right. :) I love you both!_

The two teens stared at the paper in horror, as if they had suddenly realized they were holding a time bomb in their hands. Then they looked at each other.

"WHAT?"

* * *

A.N. Another cliffhanger! XD Who will Rin choose? Meiko...or Len?

While creating this chapter, I realized that I have a strange ability to write really mean dialogue. What Neru's coworkers and Len said was incredibly nasty! Len calls Rin a flat-chested child, and Neru's associates compare Neru to a Nazi! 8( Is that just me getting into character, or am I secretly a mean person? I'm kind of concerned!

Just to let you all know: this chapter is unusual in that it took me only one week to write it. I'm approaching a new stage of my life that will make it harder and harder to update the story in a timely manner, so I wanted to publish something before that point. I've actually started writing rough drafts for future chapters ahead of time, so that when my schedule gets really crazy, I'll have material ready for my lovely beta Miko A. Kimura to edit, and I'll be able to post a new chapter. I fully intend to finish this story. It's just going to take me a while to do it.

A note for the people who may be concerned about my slow writing pace: Please consider the fact that I tend to write longer chapters. This chapter was a honking 21 pages on Microsoft Word. Longer chapters naturally take longer to write (especially for a creative perfectionist like myself who spends thirty minutes researching Japanese liquor to write a two-minute bar scene).

However, reviews inspire me to write faster. So if you want chapters to come earlier, leave reviews! :) Thanks!

Kaachan – mom/mama/mommy


	7. Intermission

Disclaimer: I am not liable for any frustration or negative emotions this author's note and series of filler material may elicit. So please, refrain from unnecessary flaming or defaming. It will not make the next chapter come any faster.

* * *

**Blondes Are for the Birds**

**Intermission**

* * *

Dear Readers,

When I actively read fanfiction stories, I hated these "author's notes" as much as you do. Honestly, it annoys me immensely that I'm writing one instead of posting the next chapter. I always saw these things as a petty way for a writer to give his/her readers a whole slew of excuses for not updating their story or putting their story on a semi-permanent or permanent hiatus.

However, I'm writing this now because I believe that I owe all of you, especially one reviewer who called herself "Emi," a shout out and an explanation.

This story will be continued and ultimately finished. I'm determined for that to be so, but unfortunately, my life at the moment is more demanding than it has ever been before. I'm busier, happier, and more social than I was in the past, but because of the upbeat tone to my daily life, I'm suffering a horrible case of writer's block in all of my creative projects.

Depressingly enough, I write best when I'm feeling negative emotions like sadness, anger/frustration, insecurity, rejection, or antisocial escapism. And I'm sure none of you want me to force myself into becoming miserable. Or bored. Or to avoid my real-life responsibilities (like I'm kind of doing now).

I honestly tried to write the next chapter. I really tried, but I ended up scrapping most of the material I wrote because it just didn't _feel _right. So, while I'm entrenched in writer's block, I've been researching Japanese culture, entertainment, language, etc. and the general setting of Tokyo more than ever before. I can't promise you all that I'll be able to finally get into gear and start up again sometime soon. But I can promise you that in my little moments of spare free time, I am going to try my best to crank something out.

Sincerely,

Auntie

P.S. Emi, I'm talking directly to you now (if you're still looking at this story over a month later). You were so sweet to offer to help me write my story! Sincere reviewers like you always inspire me. But I'm afraid Blondes Are for the Birds is something I'm going to have to finish myself. However, if it's all right with you (and if you've gotten a fanfiction account), I may consult you for research purposes or to get a second opinion on things, especially the emotional development of characters, since you felt like you really connected to them. That would be extremely helpful.

* * *

Okay. Despite all the delays and the lame author's note, there is one upside to all of this. I'm a nice person, so I'm going to throw you all a few bones. Enjoy some rough-draft spoilers and/or extra fluff material!

* * *

**For you fluff lovers:** A series of Rin/Len scenes that popped randomly into my head whilst writing

* * *

_**For The Granny Next Door**_

* * *

"What's that?"

"Cookies. But they're not for you."

Len snagged one from Rin's plate anyways.

"Hey! I made those for the granny next door!"

Len continued to munch on the cookie. "I'm doing her a favor. Tastes bad."

"Then why are you grabbing another one?"

* * *

_**Sweet Tunes**_

* * *

"You always shut everyone out with those headphones. How can what you're listening to in there be more important than what's out here?"

Len glared at Rin, and then grunted to himself. He pressed his thumb to the "pause" button of his mp3, pulled off his headphones, and held one earpiece to his left ear while pressing the other spongy headphone to Rin's right ear. Then he turned back on the music.

At first, the high-volume sound cut into Rin's eardrums, but as she gradually got used to it…

"Oh." Her eyes widened, and she began to listen intently. "Oh!" Unconsciously, Rin closed her eyes and hummed, "Mmm."

Just when she had started enjoying herself, Len snatched his headphones back.

"Now do you get it?"

"No," she stubbornly insisted, crossing her arms and turning her head away. She secretly wanted to ask him what the name of the artist was, but her pride got in the way.

* * *

_**Rin Gets a Zit**_

* * *

A red bump had popped up on Rin face overnight. Miserably, she stared at herself in the mirror.

"What should I do about this?"

"Hm?" Len picked this shameful moment in her morning to come into the bathroom.

"Nothing."

He followed her line of vision into her reflection and saw the spot on her cheek.

"Zit?"

"No. I got a bug bite."

"Well, if you want to get rid of your 'bug bite,' you squeeze it," he demonstrated by moving his pointer fingers towards each other in the air, "like this."

"Ew." She looked at her stepbrother with distaste. "No. That will only make it worse."

"Then I don't know what to tell you."

"Wow. Thanks for being so helpful."

"Anytime." He smirked to himself as he walked back out into the hallway. "People who actually have acne need all the help that they can get."

"Hey, I don't get them that often, and you've had a zit before! I've seen it!"

Len stopped in his tracks and retraced his steps back into the bathroom. "Where?"

"On the back of your neck."

"…" He gave himself a moment to process that statement. "When exactly were you staring at the back of my neck?"

"I sit behind you in history, dummy."

"Oh yeah, right." He rubbed his neck self-consciously and mumbled, "Well, if you really want to do something for it, try soaking a washcloth in icy water and pressing it to the spot for a minute, and then use cover-up after that."

"…How do you know something like that?"

"Um, T.V. commercial?"

Rin amended her previous statement. "Then how did you remember something _girly_ like that?"

"Remember? I can't forget anything."

"Oh. That sucks."

"Yeah. There are so many school textbooks that I can't get out of my head! It's like I'm a walking cheat sheet on test days."

"Okay," Rin's eyes narrowed, "now I don't feel sorry for you."

* * *

_**Here Comes the Thunder/Don't Treat Me Like a Shoujo Heroine**_

* * *

"Ah, it looks like a lightning storm."

Rin groaned. "That's no good. I've always hated lightning."

As if her words had been a cue, the sky lit up, and searing light bathed Len and Rin in a flash of electric white. Rin instinctively squeaked in surprise, and Len turned at the noise. Before she had time to even think, a pair of arms pulled her into a foreign lap, and her face was buried in the fabric of Len's t-shirt. His body muffled the noise of the preceding thunder.

He was warm, so Rin momentarily forgot that a.) she didn't have astraphobia and b.) whose lap she was sitting on and could only think, 'This is kind of nice. Like having a man-sized electric blanket.' However, the heady sound of Len breathing in her ear shocked her back into her senses.

"Let go of me!" she shrieked.

"I thought you said you were afraid of lightning?"

"No, I just don't like it! It's loud, and it wakes me up at night. That doesn't mean I'm a wuss!"

While Rin scolded him, Len tuned her out and continued to hold her tightly.

She glared at him and cleared her throat, waiting for him to get a clue. When he didn't respond, she yelled, "So, get off!" and pushed him off to the floor beside the couch.

"Ow! What was that for?"

She rolled her eyes impatiently. "When I say get off, I'm not telling you, 'Please, keep invading my personal space.' I'm telling you to get the heck off of me!"

* * *

**And… For you Spicy!Len lovers: **A rough draft of a series of possible future scenes

* * *

_**Game Time**_ (Why did I give it that name? No clue)

* * *

_Background Information: The setting of this first scene is Rin and Len's new high school, Yonezu High. Luka has been introduced as a character and becomes friends with Teto and Rin. Len is in an "on-again, off-again" relationship with Miki (and perhaps several other girls), after he broke up with his girlfriend from middle school (who probably will be Sonika)._

* * *

Holding their bento boxes, Teto, Luka, and Rin walked to the school courtyard to eat their lunch out in the breezy fall weather. However, when they had almost gotten outside of the school, Rin came to a sudden halt. Oblivious to the fact that she had left her blonde friend behind, Teto continued to have a one-sided conversation with Luka.

"…sure that you don't want to go shopping with me and Rin? I know you hate the mall, but you are so pretty and tall! It would be so fun to dress you up! Plus, since I have pink hair to, I'll know just the colors that will work with…"

Noticing Rin's absence, Luka turned around and raised one strawberry-blonde eyebrow in her friend's direction.

"Something wrong?" Luka asked bluntly, ignoring whatever Teto had been chattering about.

Rin came out of her daze. "Biology. I forgot my biology notes in English!"

Teto perked up. "Don't we have a quiz later today in bio?" She gave Luka a meaningful look.

Luka thought about it for a moment, and then nodded.

"Oh crap!" Rin squeaked, smacking herself on the side of the hand. "I forgot to study! Gotta get my notes."

To lighten her load, Rin thrust her bento box and books in Teto's general direction.

"Will be back. Bye!"

She zipped back down the hallway, leaving her friends in the dust.

Luka blinked several times and then continued towards the glass doors. Teto resumed her cheerful babbling.

"You know, I never would have thought it was true, with her dyed green hair and all, but Gumi has a pretty good sense of style! I went shopping with Miku and her the other day and…"

* * *

Since the English classroom was on the opposite side of the school, Rin was huffing and puffing by the time she had reached her destination. Jiggling the door handle experimentally, she was happily surprised to find it unlocked. Slipping inside, Rin glanced around to see if Hiyama-sensei has propped her book up on the ledge along the class white-board, where he usually placed "lost and found" items.

She couldn't see it there, so she moved towards her desk near the back of the room. Her notebook, with countless stickers and random messages doodled in sharpie by Teto on it, didn't seem to be anywhere in sight. She checked in her desk's cubby and got down on her hands and knees to search the floor.

"Ah ha!" She snatched up her notebook triumphantly. Somehow, her notes had shifted under another student's desk.

Just as she was about to get herself off the ground, the class door creaked open. Rin instinctively hit the dirt. Had Hiyama-sensei returned from his lunch break early? She tried and failed to hide herself completely behind her desk. Technically, students were not supposed to loiter around in empty classrooms during a teacher's off-period. She could get detention! Or worse…

Arms over her head and eyes tightly shut, Rin braced herself for the worst and tried to breathe quietly. It was just a matter of time before she was discovered.

…but that moment never came. After a few drawn-out seconds of agony, Rin cracked open one eye. She could hear faint whispering at the front of the classroom. Wait, why were there two voices?

Unless Hiyama-sensei had developed a split personality, there were now two other people in the room. Rin listened in. One voice sounded distinctly male, the other female. Rin's eyes widened. What was Hiyama-sensei doing here with a woman? A chill ran across the back of Rin's neck as she imagined situations that her otaku volleyball teammates liked to fantasize about. An impressionable student falls in love with a mature teacher; they have a secret affair…

She shook the thought out of her head. Naw, Hiyama-sensei would never do something like that! Rin bit her lip. Right?

Her curiosity got the better of her, and she painstakingly turned to peek around the leg of her desk. It was hard to tell at this angle, but whoever they were, neither of them looked anything like Hiyama-sensei.

The girl with her back towards Rin had long, cranberry red hair, and when she laughed, a shock went up Rin's spine. It was Furukawa Miki, the girl who had snubbed Rin the first day of school.

Rin could feel a headache coming on. She was imprisoned in a room with a girl who hated her guts. Great. Could things get any worse?

"Mmph. Ohhh, Len…"

Apparently, they could. Rin's mouth dropped. From her angle, she hadn't been able to see the person in front of Miki, but as Rin shifted slightly to the left, she could clearly make out a messy blonde pony tail.

"Len…" Miki moaned appreciatively as Len buried his face in her neck, trailing his lips against her skin.

Rin watched as Len lifted his head at the sound of his name. Light strands of hair framed his piercing blue eyes. She knew he couldn't see her from there, but his gaze had a watchful quality to it, like a leopard stalking its prey.

Len's presence gave Rin the strange impression that if he had bothered to look her way, he would have been able to see right through her desk, into her eyes, and beneath her clothes. The thought sent a shiver of goose bumps over Rin's skin.

With a predatory smirk, Len brushed his hand up the side of Miki's leg, hiking up her skirt as he leaned in for another deep kiss.

Rin made a face and quickly looked the other way. Oh gosh. Whatever Len's weird ex-girlfriend from his old school had said was true. Len had become a bona fide playboy, with Miki's porn-star style sighs to prove it.

Whimpering softly, Rin covered her ears, but she couldn't block out the live sex tape playing in the room.

If Rin hadn't hated Len before, she certainly loathed him now. Stupid horn dog. With the two of them grunting and groaning like barnyard animals, Rin was trapped. If she got up, they would see her. If she stayed, she would probably go insane.

Why, why did people have make-out sessions at school in an empty classroom on Hiyama-sensei's desk? Couldn't they have just waited a few more hours until school was out, saving poor bystanders like Rin?

Face heating up with mortification and disgust, Rin could suddenly relate to a rabbit caught in a smelly cage. Her heart beat faster; she could feel herself becoming sweaty, and her mind buzzed. What to do, how to get out, where to go?

Thousands of images flew back and forth in Rin's brain. What could she do? Her head throbbed from the sensory overload. Gotta get out of here!

Her thoughts exploded.

Blank-eyed and feverish, Rin shot up. She stood stiffly, facing the back of the classroom. Everything went silent, but all Rin could think was, 'Where is the exit? Get me out of here!'

Looking around wildly, she caught sight of the classroom's second entrance. Thank God for back doors! Rin made a beeline for the exit without a glance behind her.

Len stared after his stepsister in shock.

Wondering why Len had stopped his ministrations, Miki inquired, "Uh, something wrong?"

He was gazing blankly at the back wall. Flustered and red-faced, Miki stuck out her lower lip. "Um, hellooo?"

Since he wouldn't respond, she followed his line of vision. Her burgundy eyes widened. Wait, who was that blondie running out of the classroom?

"Len, what is going on?"

"Someone saw us."

"Wha…?" Miki's face turned a darker shade of red. "I thought you said that no one comes here!"

He shrugged, pulling himself away from her. "We'll finish this later."

"Later?" Miki's mouth hung open in disbelief. "This isn't something you can put on hold, jerk!"

Completely ignoring her, Len ran out into the hallway. Miki crossed her arms and huffed impatiently. When he didn't return after a few minutes had passed, she began to amuse herself by fixing her skirt, hair, and the buttons on her top. One thing she loved and hated about Len was that he could ignore her, snub her, and leave her, but she'd always come back wanting more.

She sighed in exasperation. If there was a woman in the world who could keep Kagamine Len in line, Miki would have to personally congratulate her. Len listened to no one and respected no one. Miki blew a piece of hair out of her face. Even his so-called girlfriend.

* * *

_A few nights after the previous scene…_

* * *

_Perfect. Len gasped. Every inch of her was perfect, from her tulip pink mouth to the ends of her curling toes. Against the wrinkled sheets of the bed, her creamy skin shone faintly from the city lights outside his window. _

_The friction between their bodies was like a drug to him; his skin heated and his mind clouded with ecstasy. He pressed his mouth firmly against her stomach, breasts, and mouth as she wove her delicate fingers through his hair. Giddy with pleasure, he stopped for a second to worship her body and gently traced her collarbone with kisses. _

_He'd never held a girl like this, he thought as he kissed her trembling lips, afraid that if he embraced her too roughly, she would break, or if he didn't hold her tightly enough, she would disappear. _

_Sensing fear in the desperate movements of his mouth and hands, she made him pause. Her hand caressed his cheek, and her eyes traced his features. He breathed her in, closing his eyes to capture the moment. _

_Then she said his name, "Len," as if it was the only word that mattered in the world. _

_His eyes shot open, and a flash of light from the window illuminated the room. _

_Short blonde hair fanned out against his pillow. Deep blue irises with yellow bleeding out from the pupils, like sunflowers in her eyes. This face…_

"_Rin?"_

And that was when Kagamine Len woke up. Sticky with sweat, he gasped and choked for air, struggling to escape from his tangled sheets and stumble across the cold floor into the bathroom. Without bothering to take off his clothes, he turned the shower on full blast, hoping the icy water would somehow erase the dream from his mind.

But no matter how long he stood under the chilling torrent, two impressions remained branded in his mind. The bright, blinding blue of her eyes and the sound of her voice calling his name.

_Len._

With his water-darkened blonde hair plastered over his eyes, he blindly pressed his forehead against the shower wall and threw his fist against the tiles.

"Damn it!"

What the fuck was Rin doing inside his head?

* * *

_The morning after…_

* * *

The last thing Rin would have expected Len to do as she waddled into the kitchen was to fall out of his chair.

As she walked inside the room, stretching and yawning a half hearted, "Good morning," she reached to push her shirt up above her stomach to scratch the side of her itchy ribcage. Len muttered a "Morning" back and returned to his bowl of cereal. Then he did a double take and looked back at her in surprise.

His eyes locked in on the exposed skin of her midriff; he made a sound halfway between a grunt and a snort, lost his balance, and fell back-first onto the floor.

"Uh." Rin didn't know what to make of the situation as Len groaned from his landing spot on the ground. Was Len usually this clumsy? In concern, she came up behind her stepbrother, standing above his sprawled-out figure.

"Um, you have to be careful. These chairs aren't that steady," she said as she squinted down at the dark bags under his eyes, "Did you not sleep well?"

"No, I slept…" He stopped midsentence and muttered something incoherent to himself with his head turned away.

"What was that?"

"Nothing," he insisted, raising a hand to shield his eyes from the kitchen ceiling's lights. "Can you step back a little? I can see up your shirt at this angle."

"Eek!" Rin squeaked, pressing her t-shirt to her body, and kicked Len in the head. "Pervert!"

Rin huffily ignored Len for the rest of breakfast, busying herself with preparing her usual morning meal of clementines, a tall glass of milk, and toast spread with butter and jam. When she started digging through the fridge, Len asked if she could hand him the orange juice to refill his empty glass, but she pretended not to hear him and plopped down into a seat along the kitchen island.

Len rubbed his aching head in exasperation and grudgingly began drinking the milk from his cereal bowl.

"Mmmmm! Ahhhhh..."

Len spat milk.

"Oh my God. Soooo. Gooood," Rin moaned.

Len's brain stopped functioning completely. What the fuck? His nightmare had come to life. He resisted the urge to pull out all of his hair. Why the hell was his stepsister making noises that sounded like a recording from a porn video? Shit, and now he could feel a boner coming on.

Suppressing his raging hormones, Len turned to Rin and asked as calmly as possible. "Um, what did you just say?"

Embarrassingly enough, he had been so surprised that a little milk had gone through his nose and was now dribbling down his face.

The white liquid running out of Len's nose made Rin forget why she was not supposed to be talking to him, so before biting into another segment of her favorite citrus fruit, she chirped, "I said, this clementine is so good!"

Rin munched on her tasty treat. Len simply stared.

"And you might want to wash your face. You have milk…" she leaned over towards him and ran her finger from her nose, over her parted lips, and down her neck. "…all over here."

Len watched as her hand moved down her face, and he knew that words were coming out of her mouth, but all he could hear was the sound of her breathing.

The movements of her pink lips, her long legs swinging over the edge of her chair, her stupid food orgies, he couldn't take it anymore. He had to leave. Now.

Ignoring Rin, he picked up his cereal bowl, dumped its contents down the sink, wiped the milk off of his face, and left the kitchen without a backward glace.

"Len?" Rin called after him in concern over his strange behavior.

"_Len."_ Her voice echoed in his head as images from last night's dream flashed before his eyes.

"Shut up!" Len muttered desperately to himself, covering his ears.

Stupid wet dream. Stupid stepsister. Stupid hormones!

* * *

_**A Little Random Rin/Teto Interaction**_ (to lighten things up)

* * *

"When you told me he was a jerk, you failed to mention that he was a hot one!"

Rin shrugged. "What difference does it make?"

"The difference between a good romance and a bad one. Who would watch a movie about a girl falling in love with an unattractive jerk that she used to hate? Stick a smoking hot actor in the unattractive guy's place, and suddenly, it's the greatest romance ever!"

"God." Rin rolled her eyes. "Why did I even bother asking?"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"That you are a disloyal, shallow excuse for a friend."

"Hey! Unlike you, I can appreciate aesthetic beauty while cognitively ignoring internal flaws."

"Like I said, shallow."

* * *

_**Last but not least, here's something I wrote just for this "Intermission"**_

* * *

Rin had expected Len to leave her room after her verbal tirade, but he had paused at her door and hadn't moved any further. What was stopping him from leaving?

His head turned back towards her, and Rin froze. In a movement too fast to follow, Len was on her bed again, inching towards her until their faces were aligned a centimeter apart from each other.

"What are you doing?" He was so close that her warm breath rebounded off his skin and brushed against her heated cheeks.

Without a reply, his hands slammed against her headboard, trapping her head between his arms as he straddled her, and his body hovered over her own. She had to stay to hear him out, even if he had to force her to.

"Something I should have tried a long time ago." Hoarse sincerity roughened the words as he whispered,

"I love you."

Rin's mouth dropped. Len…love…what?

Her first instinct was to deny it. In reaction to his words, she gasped and shook her head from side to side, eyes tightly closed.

Even though he had expected nothing more than this, Len's face fell. "You don't believe me?"

"No!" He had been nothing but hateful and nasty to her until just recently, when he had suddenly decided to change. What else was she supposed to think?

With uncharacteristic uncertainty, Len bit his lip, and then he murmured, "Then let me show you."

Rin's eyes shot open in terror. "Wait, Len, this is a mistake. You shouldn't do this; it's…"

"You know what I could do to you right now?" he demanded, interrupting her. Rin shook her head again. "I could kiss you. I could make you scream my name. I could erase your mind of anything but me, and your body would be mine."

Coming from anyone else, Rin would have written off those words as a cocky exaggeration. But from Len, she knew he was telling the truth. She had seen what he had done to Miki, to all of those other girls. If he really wanted to, if he really cared enough, what would stop him from doing the same to her as well?

Rin had never believed herself to be a weak person, but the shock had made her arms and legs feel as useful as limp noodles. She'd have to fight her way out of this, but after her long, hard, emotional day, she wasn't sure if she had the strength to do so. She'd have to somehow convince Len to stop. He would have to listen to reason.

Just when she opened her mouth to try to persuade Len, he began to speak again.

"The thing is…I'm not."

Rin looked up in shock.

He maintained direct eye contact with her as he slowly explained, "I would never force that on you, Rin, because I want you to want me."

Stripped bare, Len's cleared eyes allowed Rin to see straight into him. He was a heart-broken child, a boy desperately in need of the one thing that she didn't think she was able to give him.

"Do you understand?"

* * *

A.N. Whew… for 14+ pages of material, out of all the chapters I've posted this took me the least amount of time to put together. How wild is that? Maybe it's because it's easier for me to produce random, irrelevant fluff than substantial material, and because I enjoy torturing Len so much... Haha.

Please be sure and review! Let me know which bonus scenes you enjoyed the most or the least and why you liked or disliked them! It'll help me figure out which ones are worth editing and putting back into the story, and it'll let me know what kind of stuff you guys like the most. :) Thank you!


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